Veiled Threats

by
Suzann Darnall

Okay, I'll admit it up front . . . this is not a researched news piece, this is an emotional diatribe! It is all about me being a woman and an American. About me being scared at the fraud being perpetrated upon my country by social, political, and religious con artists. About my great fear that my freedoms will be taken away from me in the name of religious tolerance. Not religious tolerance for all, but religious tolerance only for Islam. I find it to be less about tolerance and more about terrorism. A very personal kind of terrorism. A sort of extortion using name calling and veiled threats. Yes, this is about me me me!

If political correctness is important to you, I suggest you skip the rest of this article, 'cause things might get a little ugly. I am not always rationally polite when I am scared and angry. And, right now . . . I am very scared and very angry!!!

First and foremost, I do not want to see a mosque built at Ground Zero. To tell the truth, I am fast losing a portion of religious tolerance and would actually prefer to see no mosques anywhere in America! I see them no longer as just another place to worship, but as an insidious creeping threat to freedom as I know it. Mosques and veiled women are no longer seen by me as part of America's great diversity, but as the precursors of Sharia Law. Of the subjugation of women. Of the loss of my liberty. My ability to exist as I do now. Not being a second class citizen or chattel to my husband. Also, I know the historical significance of mosques being built on conquered ground as Mohammed swept across much of the known world. Are we now to consider a few square blocks of New York City to have been conquered by Islamic extremists???

I have, until recently, been quite religiously tolerant. I cherish my freedom of religion and felt that right should be shared with others. That I should respect their choices as I expected them to respect mine. But, it has to be an equal tolerance. I give it to you and you give it to me. Islam does not seem to think it goes both ways. They make demands for our tolerance, but give none back.

I am still tolerant of most religions. I admire much about Buddhism and Shinto. I see great gentleness in Hindu. There is a strength in the Jewish faith and people that must be acknowledged. And, those other churches that share my belief in Jesus Christ are to be considered my brothers and sisters, to be loved even in the midst of our occasional divergences of doctrine.

But, I am finding it more and more impossible to extend this sharing and caring to Islam. It is too frightening to me as both a woman and an American. How can one tolerate a religious group that is seemingly based in such hatred and anger? Their tenets tell them to not befriend the Jews or the Christians, as well as admonishing them to kill the infidels. I'm not seeing a lot of love there.

Islam also wishes to spread Sharia Law throughout the nations it has invaded. Whether through conquest in the time of Mohammed or by immigration. And, yes, I do see it as an invasion. They do not apparently wish to assimilate into our society and become Americans. They seemingly wish to transform us all into Muslims. We, the majority, are expected to bend to their minority will. An event that seems to be happening all too much in some European nations.

There is no equality in the Muslim world. Sharia Law goes to great lengths to keep it that way. Women are most definitely second class citizens, if not outright property. A woman can be stoned to death, raped by her husband, beaten, disfigured, or any number of other horrific punishments … all in the name of "law". Often with no other witness against her than the word of her husband. How does this compare with the American legal system? Which, while flawed, does still operate on the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, as well as requiring a little more than one disgruntled man's word to destroy the life of a down-trodden woman!

I do not wish for my life to become an empty hole of destruction like Ground Zero. What was once thriving is now gone. A void that no longer contributes to society except as a place of tears and fears. This is the future Islam, with it's Sharia Law, would wish upon women in America. That we would simply be conquests that they would bend and shape to their will. Stripped of our freedoms and dressed in their veils. For me the veiled threats by Imam Feisal Rauf signify the possibility of the threat of having to wear veils made of cloth. Not something this American woman wants to do. Nor do I wish it for my daughters and granddaughters.

© Suzann C. Darnall, SEPTEMBER 2010