Are Islamists Plotting to Take Over?
Does this mean we have to be terrified of all Muslims? Are they all out to impose their religious laws on us?
I’m not too afraid of Shanna Bukhari, are you?
Shanna Bukhari is a UK-born Muslim who entered the Miss Universe contest. Image: Howard Barlow/Observer
Bukhari was born and raised in the UK, and in 2011 entered the British “prelims” for the Miss Universe pageant. She began receiving hundreds of abusive messages via Facebook, including death threats. Said Bukhari in 2011:
“I get people saying, ‘you’re not a Muslim’ and ‘you’re using religion to get attention’. I said they were the ones bringing religion into it. I’m not representing Islam; I just want to represent my country, and of that I am very proud. They are trying to control me, using religion as a tool to attack.”
An example? There is a blog, set up using Bukhari’s name, with the tagline “In the name of Allah, compassionate & merciful, Peace be with you”. The most recent post (from this April) is a rant about how she claimed to be “a good Muslim” but then “acted as a non-Muslim”.
The previous post describes the murder by stoning of a 19-year-old Ukrainian Muslim who entered a beauty contest under the heading, “This is what happens when a Muslim in the West becomes a role model”. The “peace-wishing” blogger is blaming Bukhari for the barbaric behavior of certain Ukrainian Muslims who brutally murdered a young woman for “violating the laws of Sharia”.
There are people we need to be concerned about, and people we need to support. There are Muslims on each side of that line. Some want to be part of Western civilization. Others want to destroy it. Some want to practice their religion in peace. Others want to impose it upon others, instead of letting their all-powerful deity mete out punishments itself.
In supporting the Muslims who support secular government and religious liberty, we can also encourage them to speak out against the barbarians who wish to enforce their Sharia law upon everyone else. If instead we choose to paint all Muslims with the same brush, we will only reap that which we sow-increasingly segregated and distrustful societies.
It’s just like painting all Christians with the same brush here in the US. Let’s not forget that there are many millions of Christians who support religious liberty and church-state separation, and by supporting them, we can encourage them to speak out against Christian Dominionists who wish to enforce their own religious laws upon all Americans.