Many years ago there was a dispute among Christians between pre-Millennialists and post-Millennialists, thankfully resolved in favor of the pre-Millennialists.
In Christian theology, the Millennium is the thousand-year reign of Christ on Earth before the final judgment (Revelation 20: 1-10). Pre-Millennialists believed the Second Coming of Christ would usher in the Millennium. But post-Millennialists thought it was up to believers to establish the conditions for Christ’s return through a religious dictatorship.
So if you lived in, say, the north German town of Munster in 1534, it mattered very much if your neighbor was a pre-Millenialist or a post-Millenialist. The pre-Millenialist might annoy you by handing you a pamphlet. But the post-Millenialist would kill you if you didn’t believe exactly what he believed.
There is within Islam today a split rather like that between the radical Anabaptists of Munster and the rest of Christendom. Most Muslims do not seek to impose their religion upon others by force. But there are among them some who are eager to kill all who do not believe exactly as they believe.
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., the new chairman of the Homeland Security Committee in the House, thinks it would be good for all of us to know which is which in the United States. He has announced plans to hold hearings on “the radicalization of the American Muslim community.”
It seems obvious why Mr. King thinks hearings are needed. In an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning” America” program Dec. 22, Attorney General Eric Holder said that of 126 people charged with terror-related offenses in the last two years, 50 are American citizens.
The threat of homegrown terror “keeps me up at night,” Mr. Holder said. “The threat has changed from simply worrying about foreigners coming here to worrying about people in the United States, American citizens -- raised here, born here and who for whatever reason have decided that they are going to become radicalized and take up arms against the nation in which they were born.”
But for all we know, the attorney general thinks the domestic terrorists are Anabaptists, or animal rights activists. Nowhere in the ABC interview did he use the words “Islam,” “Muslim,” or “Jihad,” noted Tom Blumer of Newsbusters.
In an editorial on New Year’s Day, The New York Times described Mr. King’s plan to hold hearings as a “sweeping slur on Muslim citizens.”
I would think the opposite. I’m a Christian. If there were still a bunch of post-Millenialists running around trying to purge unbelievers, I would want everyone to know that I was not one of them.
M. Zuhdi Jasser, a physician in Arizona and a former naval officer, is president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy. He thinks Mr. King’s hearings will provide “an opportunity for Muslims who don’t toe the line of American Islamist organizations to present an alternative vision for American Muslims -- one based in American values and Muslim reform.”
Mr. King’s hearings will give moderate Muslims the opportunity to distinguish themselves from the radicals. And they will give the rest of us an important education. If you’re unclear about who the enemy is, and what motivates him, it’s hard to guard against him.
Some of our authorities, their vision restricted by politically correct blinders, have difficulty distinguishing between law-abiding Muslims and the radicals.
Anwar al-Awlaki, born in New Mexico in 1971, is the first American citizen to be placed on the CIA’s “kill or capture” list. He was spiritual adviser to two of the 9/11 hijackers and to Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who killed 13 and wounded 30 in a shooting spree at Fort Hood, Texas, in November 2009.
But Mr. Awlaki was a “moderate Muslim” in the minds of some who ought to have known better. Shortly after the 9/11 attacks he was invited to lunch at the Pentagon, and played a role in training Muslim chaplains for the U.S. military.
The man the Pentagon tapped to create the Muslim chaplain program was Adurahman al-Amoudi, a donor to both political parties and a frequent guest in the Clinton White House. In 2004, Mr. al-Amoudi was sentenced to 23 years in prison, in part for his role in a plot to assassinate a Saudi prince. He also raised funds for al-Qaida, Hamas and Hezbollah.
Americans know most Muslims aren’t terrorists, or terror sympathizers. But they wish our leaders paid more attention to the fact that virtually all recent terrorists who have attacked this country have been Muslims -- a particular kind of Muslim -- and made a greater effort to separate the sheep from the goats.