To begin with, a little history lesson.  It was in the 7th century that a trader living on the outskirts of Mecca had a divine revelation when he was 40 years old.  His name was Muhammad.  At this time, many Arabs in the area practiced Christianity and even Judaism.  Muhammad began preaching to the people around Mecca, and taught such principles as submission to God, a coming judgment and also asking for forgiveness for your sins after confessing them.  The one difference between Muhammad and the prophets of Christianity and Judaism before him is that Muhammad claimed that Christians and Jews had desecrated the teachings of God.  This was to set the tone of the religion that he founded. Christians and Jews were thought to be inferior, undeserving servants of God.  As such, they were in effect, the enemy.

Not all was love and peace in the other camps.  Primarily fueled by the Papacy in the eleventh, twelth and thirteenth centuries, the nine major crusades pitted Christians against heretic Christians and Muslims and Eastern Orthodox Christians.  Jerusalem was the vaulted prize in the early crusades, and much blood shed resulted in attempts to own it and rule it.  Despite the enormity of time that has passed since the last crusade, most Muslims still regard the crusades as if they had happened yesterday.  Islam’s triumph will be the ultimate revenge against the decendents of the crusaders.   

In Africa on Saturday, Muslims burned down 15 Christian churches and killed at least 15 Christian people using violent, torturous methods. The churches were in Maiduguri, Nigeria.  It was a three hour rampage by thousands of local Muslims.  On Sunday, Muslims in Pakistan burned down a Christian church. Between 40 and 50 people have been slain in the past three weeks by Muslims incensed by a comic shown in a local newspaper in Denmark.   Freedom of expression does not exist for Christians in Denmark, and throughout Europe, just as it does not exist in the United States.  If you are a Christian or Jew in a Muslim country, and you think you can express your views freely, think again.  It may be your demise.   

In Christianity, God instructs His followers to invite non-believers to their houses of worship and to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Apparently, this tolerance and love for ones fellow human beings is not a part of Islam. If it were so, those responsible for the senseless, bloody violence of the past few weeks would fear violating the tenets of their faith.  Obviously, they don’t.

‘Huh’ is still spelled ‘huh’ backwards and forwards, and I have found myself repeating this word often since September 11, 2001.  Time and again, we have been instructed that Islam is a religion of peace.  Time and again, we have seen terrorist acts, the murder of Christians around the world and now murderous rampages, all in the name of Islam.

When it were just a fringe few, we could agree and say amongst ourselves that indeed, there is only a minority who are fanatics.  In the past three weeks though, we have witnessed tens of thousands of fanatics.  We have seen behavior that is reprehensible.  We have witnessed insanity en mass.  Is this a religion, whose founder preached tolerance, respect and love of fellow humans?  Or is this a cult, bent on world domination, instructed to kill all Jews and Christians, and tolerate nothing outside of the Muslim world? 

The evidence is mounting as every day goes by, and every violent act is added one to the next.  Were we as Christians and Jews to understand that Muslims have hated us for centuries, then we might begin to grasp the enormity of what may erupt in the months and years ahead. 

That those who attacked the United States on 9/11 came out of this cauldron of hatred should not be a surprise.  Even today, we see that the thousands of Muslims gathering in protests all over Europe and the Arab world are not vetting their rage just at Denmark, but increasingly, at the United States.  This almost guarantees a post 9/11 incident dwarfing the original catastrophe.  And while liberals like to believe that the Muslim hatred towards the U.S. is a result of the Bush Administration, they should spend some time learning history.  There, they will find a prophet who ignited the flame of hatred, and started it all more than thirteen hundred years ago.