Religion of Peace

Immediately after Shamsud Din Jabbar plowed his rented pick-up truck through a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans killing 15 people and injuring over 30, the FBI stated that it was “not a terrorist event”.  They did not say that they did not know if it were a terrorist attack or that they were still gathering information to determine the motive of the attack, they stated unequivocally that it was “not a terrorist event.” That is their knee jerk reaction, even in light of the fact that just a couple of weeks ago, there was a very similar Islamic terrorist attack where a Muslim man drove his car into a Christmas market in Germany, killing 5 people and injuring 200. The media always gives the radical Islamic terrorists the benefit of the doubt. At the time, the AP posted on X, that “a car has driven into a group of people at a Christmas market in Germany,” as if it was one of those self-driving Tesla cars with a mind of its own.

The same thing happened when an anti-white racist and a member of the Nation of Islam, Darrell E Brooks intentionally drove his car into a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin in 2021, killing 6 people and injuring 40. The Washington Post and New York Times called the terrorist act an “accident”, while CNN’s headline read, ‘5 Killed After SUV Plows into Wisconsin Holiday Parade’. Not only did the media obscure the intentionality of the killings, they also downplayed Brooks’ affiliation to the Nation of Islam.

But it only makes sense. In June 2021, the National Security Council announced that “those who promote the superiority of the white race” are “the most persistent and lethal threats” to the United States. And for the next four years, our intelligence agencies spent a disproportionate amount of time and resources, sending pro-life activists to prison for praying at abortion clinics, spying on conservative Catholics, prosecuting middle age people who trespassed at the Capitol, raiding Donald Trump’s home, and sending Trump’s associates jail, while putting the pursuit of terrorists on the back burner, even though our borders were swung wide open by the Biden administration, and suspected terrorists entering our country illegally was up over 2,500%.

In videos posted on social media, Shamsud Din Jabbar discussed his plans for killing his family after his divorce. In 2020, his second wife took out a restraining order against him which mandated that he refrain from threats, and physical harm against his ex-wife and either of their children. He then announced on social media his plans to join ISIS. This guy should have been all over the FBI’s watch list. They should have been monitoring every single one of his social media’s posts. The social media companies who were extremely diligent at censoring conservative points of view the last 8 years, should have red flagged him numerous times. Yet, they didn’t.

Jabbar made several recordings at night while he was driving from his home in Texas to Louisiana. President Joe Biden said at a press conference: "The FBI also reported to me that mere hours before the attack, he posted videos on social media indicating that he was inspired by ISIS, especially a desire to kill. The ISIS flag was found in his vehicle, which he rented to conduct this attack." But nothing was done because it is Islamophobic to suspect a Muslim, who joins an Islamic terrorist organization and post videos about killing people, of possibly committing acts of terrorism.

So, let’s start the countdown as to when the collective narrative in the media to this terrorist event is to warn Americans against Islamophobia. Not to warn Americans against the potential of Islamic terrorism, but against Islamophobia. It usually takes about three to four days after a terrorist attack for the terrorist sympathizers to start speaking out against Islamophobia. My money is on Karine Jean-Pierre. She’ll be the first. Warning Americans against Islamophobia in the wake of an Islamic terrorist attack in America is like warning sheep against ‘wolf-a-phobia’ because they are on alert for wolf attacks after one of their herd was just eaten by a wolf.

Do you know that there’s not a term for the hatred and persecution of Christians? There’s Islamophobia; there’s antisemitism; there’s homophobia; there’s transphobia; there’s misogyny; there’s racism; they’re sexism; there’s ageism; there’s body-shaming, but there’s no term for the hatred and violence against Christians, even though Christians are the most persecuted group in the world today, especially the Christians living in Muslim countries. They face the most persecution, they face the most death due to their religion than any other group, yet no one has not come up with a term that describes this anti-Christian hate and violence which is so widespread. Maybe if someone did come up with a word for it, it would be deemed as Islamophobic, because Muslims do most of the persecutions and killings of Christians. That’s the way it works.

Shamsud Din Jabbar's brother, Abdur Jabbar, 24, told the New York Times that they had been brought up Christian, but his brother had converted to Islam long ago. He said, "as far as I know he was a Muslim for most of his life. What he did does not represent Islam.” They always say that the terrorist acts that are committed in the name of Islam do not represent Islam, even though the terrorists usually shout, "Allahu Akbar," before they commit the Islamic terrorist attack.

Barack Obama and others will tell us that Islam is the “religion of peace”. But hours after the terrorist attack in New Orleans, before all those killed had even been identified, hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters marched in New York City, blocking Sixth Avenue in Manhattan calling for "intifada” – genocide against the Jews. The timing of this protest does not make for the best optics for a group wanting to separate itself from violence and terrorism, and be seen as the religion of peace. Or maybe they wanted to capitalize on the terror from the mass murders hours before to drive their point home. So, I guess you don’t really have to be the religion of peace, you just have to repeatedly say that you are the religion of peace after members of your religion commit acts of terror in the name of your religion as proscribed by your holy book, the Quran.

But what about the Christians who killed in the name of Christianity like during the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition, does that mean that Christianity is not a religion of peace? When Christians kill non-Christians in the name of Christianity, they are acting in direct opposition to the teachings of Jesus who taught “love your neighbor as yourself” and “love your enemies”. When Muslims kill non-Muslims in the name of Islam, they are acting according to the teachings of the Quran which teaches, "kill the disbelievers (non-Muslims) wherever you find them, capture them and besiege them, and lie in wait for them in each and every ambush …" Surah 9:5.

Aren’t we tired of this? Aren’t we tired of pretending that Islam is a religion of peace? How many more Americans do we have to sacrifice on the altar of Islam – the religion of peace?

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Mr. Garrett is a graduate of Princeton University, and a former NFL player, coach, and executive. He has been a contributor to the website Real Clear Politics. He has recently published his first novel, No Wind.