Islamists In America

The Islamists called for the death of Salman Rushdie for his book the Satanic Verses. Those Islamists were the ruling mullahs in Iran, and their disciples around the world forced Rushdie into hiding and around the clock security.

Well, we've got an Islamist in Pittsburgh, PA, calling for the death of a leading critic of the Islamists, Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Go ahead, say anything that comes into your mind -- even if you don't agree with your minister, your priest, your rabbi. Even if you think you're right and they've got it all wrong, as long as you're not making a direct threat to someone, you can disagree or turn your back and walk away to another faith or to no faith at all.

Here, in America, it's OK. In a land of more than 3,000 diverse religions, your right to religious liberty is a guaranteed protection under the First Amendment.

"The key in the U.S. from the beginning has been to make sure all religious groups not only understand freedoms, but connect them to their own commitment," said Charles C. Haynes, senior scholar and director of educational programs at the First Amendment Center in Arlington, Va., and Nashville.

A community debate over religious freedom surfaced in Western Pennsylvania last week when Dutch feminist author Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali refugee who has lived under the threat of death for denouncing her Muslim upbringing, made an appearance at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown.

Islamic leaders tried to block the lecture, which was sponsored through an endowment from the Frank J. and Sylvia T. Pasquerilla Lecture Series. They argued that Hirsi Ali's attacks against the Muslim faith in her book, "Infidel," and movie, "Submission," are "poisonous and unjustified" and create dissension in their community.

Although university officials listened to Islamic leaders' concerns, the lecture planned last year took place Tuesday evening under tight security, with no incidents.

Imam Fouad ElBayly, president of the Johnstown Islamic Center, was among those who objected to Hirsi Ali's appearance.

"She has been identified as one who has defamed the faith. If you come into the faith, you must abide by the laws, and when you decide to defame it deliberately, the sentence is death," said ElBayly, who came to the U.S. from Egypt in 1976.

Hirsi Ali, an atheist, has been critical of many Muslim beliefs, particularly on subjects of sexual morality, the treatment of women and female genital mutilation. In her essay "The Caged Virgin," she also wrote of punishment, noting that "a Muslim's relationship with God is one of fear."

If you speak ill of Islam, the Islamists demand your death. This is what happened with the cartoon riots, and this happens every day around the world where Islamists seek to force the submission of non-Muslims. They do not tolerate any criticism of their religion, and will engage in violence at even the most obscure slight.

One really has to wonder how is it possible that a religion could have such a thin skin. After all, we don't hear about riots when Arabs repeat age-old blood libels against Jews in Israel. We don't hear about Christians rioting and looting after a Virgin Mary is desecrated with dung or an image of Jesus Christ on a crucifix is submerged in urine.

No, we do hear about Muslims rioting when someone draws cartoons satirizing the violent nature of the Islamists themselves. These cartoons became a self-fulfilling prophesy, and underscored the problems within Islam and those that push the most violent tendencies within the religion.