Guest essay by Duane Lindberg
The politically correct but naïve response to President Trump’s temporary ban on Muslim immigration has been to protest his action as “un-America”, xenophobic, and racist. While this protest may serve some political purpose, it is neither wise nor beneficial for the welfare of our nation.
It may be argued with some correctness that fear of different races and cultures (xenophobia) may have motivated the US Congress’ Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and the formation of the anti-Catholic “American Protection Association” organized in Clinton, Iowa in 1887. Also, fear of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe may have been the motivation for organizing the “Immigration Restriction League” in 1894.
However, President Trump’s temporary ban on immigration from seven Muslim nations is at root a profoundly different matter. It is an attempt to protect the citizens of the United States against followers of a fundamentalistic Islamic ideology who are publicly committed to hatred of America and to waging perpetual jihad (holy war) against America, Western democracy, and the Christian religion.
Thankfully, only a minority of Muslims are committed to this ideology! However, it is our Government’s role to protect the citizenry and to preserve our democratic form of government and our institutions. This is not xenophobia or and un-American decision, but it is a reminder of the critical responsibility our President and our Government have to preserve our democratic freedoms and institutions from those who are pledged to destroy them.
If anyone doubts the intentions of fundamentalist Islamists, let them listen to the threats of current Islamic leaders such as chief Theologian of Islam, Joseph Karidawe. When he issued his fatwa:
“Kill Americans in Iraq,” his order was obeyed and a captured American reporter was murdered.
In America, too, we have experienced the seriousness of this threat beginning on 9/11 2001 when 19 Islamic terrorists perpetrated their horrendous crime at the Trade Towers and the Pentagon. More than 3000 civilians lost their lives because of this Islamic commitment to perpetual jihad against America and the Democratic West.
This kind of religious terror revealed itself again in 2009 at Fort Hood where 14 people were murdered by Major Nidal Hasan, as he shouted: “Allahu Akbar!” (God is Great!), and at the Boston Marathon in 2013 where 260 people were injured and three killed by two Muslim immigrants from Chesnia.
The terror continued in Brooklyn, New York on December 20, 2014 when two police officers were murdered, execution-style, by jihadists; then, at Chattanooga, Tennessee on July 16, 2015, Jihadist Mohammed Abdulazeez murdered four Marines and one Sailor.
On December 14, 2015, immigrant Islamists, Syed Farook and this wife, Tashfeen Malik, murdered 14 and injured 22 at a holiday office party of his fellow employees. On June 12, 2016, Omar Mateen murdered 49 and injured 53 at an Orlando, Florida nightclub. Before his death, Mateen pledge fealty to ISIS, declaring: “Real Muslims will never accept the filthy ways of the West…. I pledge my alliance to Abu bakr Baghdadi… may Allah accept me.”
The jihad against America continued on September 17, 2016 when a Somali refugee stabbed nine people at a St. Cloud, Minnesota mall yelling “Allahu Akbar!” and “Islam! Islam!” Also, on September 17 an immigrant from Afghanistan set off multiple bombs in New York and New Jersey injuring more than 30 people. He wrote in his journal: “I pray to the beautiful, wise ALLAH, do not take JIHAD away from me.”
As we remember these and other atrocities committed here in America by Muslim immigrants, it is evident that President Trump is correct when he points out that the United States has failed to effectively vet immigrants. The evidence is very clear! Radical Islam is as dangerous to American democracy as any other totalitarian ideology, e.g. Nazism or Communism.
Whether we like President Trump or not, let’s quit acting like spunky children, and for the sake of the security of America, (this includes the welfare of our peaceful Muslim neighbors,) support our President as he calls for a temporary stay on immigration until the vetting process for immigrants and refugees is improved.
The original of this article was published on February 12, 2017 by The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier.
Rev. Lindberg, PhD, is author of the Nordskog Publishing title The Kingdom of the Rings. With over 50 years of pastoral ministry, he served as presiding bishop (emeritus) of the American Association of Lutheran Churches, was instrumental in founding the American Lutheran Theological Seminary, served as adjunct professor in areas of church history and systematic, and taught medieval history at Upper Iowa University.
© 2017 Used by Permission
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