Americans didn’t pay much attention to the rising power of radical Islam until the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks inside our borders, so it may seem like a relatively new phenomenon.  But Muslim terrorists have actually been killing Christians, Jews and other non-Muslims since before the U.S. was founded, and we fought two wars against them in the earliest days of the republic.  Muslim extremists believe their actions are justified by teachings in the Koran.  This makes it vital for us to know what the Koran instructs its followers to do, and to wake up to the reality that radical Islam poses a real threat to the safety of non-Muslims everywhere.

As early as the Middle Ages, Muslim countries along the Barbary Coast in northern Africa (chiefly Tunis, Morocco, Algiers and Tripoli) waged war against Christian nations in the Mediterranean Sea and all along the Atlantic seacoast, sending pirates to attack ships and raid coastal towns.  When the United States became an independent country and no longer under England’s jurisdiction, their ships became fair game for the pirates.

In 1786, Congress sent Thomas Jefferson and John Adams to negotiate a treaty with the Barbary States.  When they met with Tripoli’s representative to ask him why American ships were being attacked and her citizens kidnapped, they must have been surprised by his answer.  The ambassador said the Koran instructed all Muslims to make war on non-Muslims wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of any enemies they could capture.  This is true; there are several places in the Koran that say exactly this, but the chief passage is chapter 47, verse 4.

More than 220 years ago, Thomas Jefferson was warned about the threat posed by Muslim extremists, and the U.S. ended up waging two wars to defeat them.  The Koran hasn’t changed since then, and it still calls the faithful to slay non-believers.  In the name of Allah, Muslim terrorists are waging “holy war” against Christians and Jews, blowing up innocent civilians and trying to destroy the state of Israel.

No further proof of this war against non-Muslims is needed than to look at the massacre happening in northern Iraq and Syria. Christians are being told to convert or die and the brutality being waged upon religious minorities in the area is both shocking and sickening. Christian children are being cut in two or beheaded and displayed in public by the Islamic State. Executions, rape, forced fighting and the trafficking of women are daily occurrences in the region.

The Islamic State seeks to create their own nation of Sharia law and is willing, even gleeful, to purge anyone who is a non-believer. And don’t think that conversion to Muslim for these religious minorities will bring them salvation either. For example, one source recounts the story of a man renouncing his faith in Christianity just before he is beheaded by his captors. This example of purging the non-believers is nothing short of genocide and the atrocities are happening while the world watches. The Islamic State is not being shy in declaring their actions. Rather, the terrorist organization is actively posting videos and photographs for the entire world to see what they’re doing. These actions would only indicate their pride in upholding the most blood-thirsty of laws found in the Koran.

While Jefferson sought to reveal the truth about radical Islam and fight their injustices, we have a president who pretends it doesn’t present a real danger and that we should all just get along. If no one stands up and stops this persecution now, what will stop the Islamic State from making their way through Iraq and Syria to Israel and, eventually, to America?

By Whose Authority?

For a more detailed analysis of this subject, including references to Koran verses dealing with treatment of non-believers and holy war, visit my blog at www.LyleBrennan.com.