The siren call of Shariah

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By Frank J. Gaffney Jr.

Poll after poll indicates that official Washington is held in very low regard by the American people. One reason is that our leaders are seen as out of touch with the realities confronting ordinary folks - and with what those folks' common sense suggests are appropriate responses to such realities.

There could scarcely be a more graphic example of that disconnect - and its ominous implications - than the contortions the U.S. government is going through in the wake of the murder of 13 people and the wounding of dozens more at Fort Hood last week. For example, the FBI declared immediately after the attack that it was not an act of terrorism. Other officials are promoting the idea that it is simply a case of an individual afflicted by stress or deranged by the prospect of an upcoming deployment to a war zone. President Obama insists we should reserve judgment, evidently because the facts are open to varying interpretations.

Such statements are an affront to most Americans' intelligence, which common-sensically applies a prosaic form of the scientific method: They look for the explanation that best fits the facts. The facts - which are becoming ever more numerous by the day - are that the purported perpetrator of these crimes, Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, is "a devout Muslim" who, as such, has had to follow at least since 2001 the dictates of the theo-political-legal and seditious program that authoritative Islam calls Shariah. One of those dictates is that the faithful must engage in jihad, or holy war, to achieve the submission of unbelievers to Islam.

Consider the following partial but illustrative listing of behavior that speaks to Maj. Hasan's dangerous proclivities:

c During his posting in the Washington area, Maj. Hasan attended one of the most virulently Shariah-adherent mosques in America, Fairfax County's Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center. He publicly expressed admiration for its one-time imam, Anwar Al-Awlaki - an exponent of jihad associated with two of the perpetrators of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

c Maj. Hasan repeatedly tried to proselytize his psychiatric patients - many of whom genuinely did have post-traumatic stress disorder - to convert to Islam, prompting complaints from a number of those he was treating.

c He apparently authored blog postings that favorably depicted suicide bombers who go to their heavenly virgins shouting "Allahu Akbar!"

c According to the New York Times, "about a year ago," in the course of his work toward a master's degree at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Maj. Hasan "gave a Power Point presentation ... titled 'Why the War on Terror is a War on Islam.' " The London Telegraph reports he "even told classmates that Islamic law trumped the U.S. Constitution."

c Maj. Hasan gave away his belongings immediately before the shootings, saying to one recipient, "I am going away" - an act of charitable form of cleansing consistent with Shariah's injunctions to would-be shaheeds (martyrs).

c The New York Times also reports that, in the words of a friend, the night before the shootings, Maj. Hasan felt he should quit the military because, "In the Koran, you're not supposed to have alliances with Jews or Christian or others, and if you are killed in the military fighting against Muslims, you will go to hell."

As troubling as these indications of Maj. Hasan's embrace of Shariah are, even more alarming is the Army's inaction in the face of those of which it was informed. Retired Lt. Col. Ralph Peters scorched the Army's leadership in a New York Post column last Friday, saying: "For the first time since I joined the Army in 1976, I'm ashamed of its dereliction of duty. The chain of command protected a budding terrorist who was waving one red flag after another. Because it was safer for careers than doing something about him."

What is really frightening, though, is the prospect that our civilian and military leaders may think it "safer for their careers" to persist in the politically correct but mendacious contention that there is no link between murderous actions like Maj. Hasan's and adherence to authoritative Islam's Shariah program. That is the line of the Muslim Brotherhood - an organization sworn to "the destruction of Western civilization from within." It is not the truth, however.

If the U.S. government cannot come to grips with the reality that authoritative Islam is rooted in Shariah, that Shariah demands its adherents engage in supremacist jihad and that jihad is - pursuant to Shariah - intended to inflict terror on its victims, it will be wholly unable to defeat an enemy bent on its destruction. And official Washington will only further alienate the American people who have the eminent sense to appreciate that although not all Muslims (in or out of uniform) embrace Shariah and its obligation to wage jihad, those who do are our mortal enemies. The latter have no more business in our military than does their program in our country.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, Connecticut independent, has the right idea. Announcing on "Fox News Sunday" that he would launch an investigation in the Senate Homeland Security Committee, the senator declared, "If Hasan was showing signs, saying to people that he had become an Islamist extremist, the U.S. Army has to have zero tolerance. He should have been gone."

Under those circumstances, the least the Army can do is ensure that his victims - both those who aregone and those wounded in his attacks - receive Purple Hearts for the losses they incurred at the hands of the enemy.

Frank J. Gaffney Jr. is president of the Center for Security Policy, a columnist for The Washington Times and host of the nationally syndicated program, "Secure Freedom Radio."