Having traveled throughout a number of Islamic countries in the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia I have become intrigued with the Muslim mindset toward America and the West. Why is the Islamic world so angry with us? Why do we see pictures of Muslims dancing in the streets when America or Europe is attacked? Do all Muslims feel this way? I’ve found in most all of my encounters, Muslims to be hospitable and friendly.

Granted there are Muslims that are hostile, but you can find people in our own society that are hostile. Some Americans have even resorted to terrorism on our own soil. So not all terrorism is Islamic. Yet there is a sense of uneasiness and uncertainty of what really hides behind the veil of Islam.

Reading a recent book by Dinesh D’Souza titled “The Enemy At Home” has opened my eyes so much further into the mystery of the chasm between Islam and the West, namely America.

In his book D’Souza reveals the reason behind this, as not being the normal fare of political or historical explanations.  Several ‘myths” are debunked as reasons for Islam’s anger towards the West including so called resentment over the “Crusades” which took place a thousand years ago and actually ended up in a Muslim victory overall.

Bin Laden sees a more treacherous crusade where western culture and values are “corroding ancient orthodoxies, and transforming customs and institutions” (pg.15) of Islamic lands. His answer is the tool of “terrorism” against what he perceives as ‘the great Satan”, the “fountain head of atheism”.                                                                                                                                              For many Muslims it all comes down to a “moral difference”. The values cherished in Muslim or traditional societies contrast sharply with the values espoused by the West mainly through the liberal media and political action groups such as the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, Amnesty International, Gay activists organizations and so forth.

Since Islam encompasses “all of life” including government, they see America’s new distorted “separation of church and state” policy inconceivable. Removing the Ten Commandments from public buildings, banning prayer in public schools and secularizing Christian Holy days are indicators of a society run amuck. They see America as a post-Christian country that has abandoned the very principles upon which it was founded. It would be difficult to disagree!

Traditional cultures and the Muslim world see a vicious campaign to undermine traditional family values and destroy their culture along with their most cherished beliefs.

“What are the values the left seeks to impose on the rest of the world?” D”Souza asks.

“One is population control. The left wants to achieve this by providing easy access to contraception to all women, including teenage girls and unmarried women. A second is the legalization of prostitution, a cause that Hillary Clinton has championed on the international stage. A third is no-fault divorce, so that one’s partner can dissolve the marriage without the other partner’s consent. A fourth is abortion, which feminist groups regard as central to female autonomy. A fifth is the elimination of the concept of the husband as the head of the household – this is seen as a violation of gender equality. The left also seeks to prohibit parents from using corporal punishment in the home. Finally the left seeks to give cohabiting couples and homosexual couples the same rights as married couples.” (Pg. 155) Thank you Massachusetts and California!

The interesting thing is that this is not only a threat to Muslims; it is a threat to Christians! Fundamentalism in any religion is the enemy of the left. Understanding our common moral beliefs opens up an incredible window for Christians who want to build bridges with Muslims in the hope of winning them to Christ. Of course Christianity is far more than rules and morals, but true Godliness that stems out of a relationship with Christ and reflects his character.

To be sure there is hypocrisy in both Christian and Muslim behavior. But the mindset of the Muslim is: it is better to have a system of morality and fall short, then to have no system of morality at all.  Hence they see America as having no system at all. 

In terms of traditional morals for the most part, Christians and Muslims come out of the same spout. We are both reviled by the depravity of the liberal and secular agenda that relentlessly assaults not only our countries, but also our very souls.

America is now confronted with an economic crisis that ranks close to the “Great Depression” of the nineteen thirties. But the moral crisis we face is what will ultimately bring us down!

What is right is wrong and what is wrong is right. Author Tammy Bruce calls it “the death of right and wrong”! My seminary professor and New Age expert Peter Jones calls it “a blurring of distinctions”, male/female, children/parents, traditional families/alternative families, humans/animals, creator/creature, etc.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Hollywood and secular elitists have seduced America with these “pagan lies”.  The word pagan comes from the Latin, paganus, “of the earth’.  The apostle Paul tells us that God’s definition of a pagan is someone who exchanges the truth of God for a lie and worships and serves the creature rather than the Creator’. (Rom. 1:25) These pagan lies redefine marriage, family, society and life itself and are traveling throughout the world ala Western pop culture at the flip of an ipod!

When Muslims speak of their struggle, it is as they see it, a moral struggle against the very survival of their culture and beliefs.

I am not endorsing Islam, as I believe it is a huge distortion of Biblical truth. There are gross abuses within its gates, especially towards women. This has grieved my heart as I have traveled throughout Muslim countries and read books on this subject such as Carmen Bin Ladin’s  “Inside The Kingdom”. (Former Sister in Law to Osama Bin Ladin)  I abhor the practice of having of   “religious police” and the extreme rigidity and abuse demonstrated by the Taliban in Afghanistan or the Mutaween in Saudi Arabia. And of course terrorism in the name of any cause is an insidious evil that comes from the pit of hell itself!

Defend against it we should, but we must realize that our ultimate battle is not “against flesh and blood but rather against the cosmic powers of this present darkness”. (Eph. 6:11-12) If we look at this battle as a cosmic battle, the real terrorism is manifested more through a satanic movement of ancient pagan lies that permeate the cultural relativism and liberalism of today. This is the real enemy.

D’Souza makes an interesting statement “that the cultural left is unwilling to fight a serious and sustained battle against Islamic radicalism and fundamentalism because it is fighting a more threatening political battle against American conservatism and American fundamentalism…….the left’s war is not against bearded Muslims who wear long robes and carry rifles; it is against pudgy white men who wear suits and carry Bibles.” (Pg. 10)

So conservatives and Christian fundamentalists in America support the war on Islamic fundamentalism while the cultural left in America opposes the war on Islamic fundamentalism while waging one against American conservatism and Christian fundamentalism. Thats a brain twister!

Richard Dawkins in “The God Delusion” asserts Nobel Prize -winning physicist Steven Weinberg’s claim that religion is a virus that infects the human race and causes otherwise “good” people to believe in a way which is dangerous and evil.  Dawkins, who in true empirical fashion goes straight to 9/11 to prove his point.  He along with other “new atheists” sees Christians and Muslims both as part of this virus. (Table Talk Aug. 2008)

Following in the footsteps of Nietzsche who called Christianity “the one immortal blemish of mankind” the forces of the “New Age” are on the march. In the end this is the counter kingdom that the church has always faced. Today it is often called post-modernism, but it has been around since the garden. It doesn’t merely question what God has said, it say’s “ye shall be like God”. It is humanism. It is the spirit of the anti-Christ that deludes men who, while professing to be wise, become fools! (Rom. 1:22)

We can rejoice that God is sovereign and reigns and rules from his throne! He is not caught unaware of anything as this world turns. But let us think deeper about the battle before us. We have our armies to defend our lands and the freedom we cherish. This must be so and I support and pray for them because I love my country and believe that America can offer so much better to the world than the depravity of Hollywood or the agenda of the cultural left.  I do not worship America but I do pledge allegiance to what I believe she fundamentally stands for. May God shed his grace on thee!

We very well may be, the “last best hope” as author Bill Bennett asserts. But this is because of our rich Christian heritage and that we currently have the freedom to take the glorious Gospel to the ends of the earth and touch the nations with the grace of Jesus Christ. 

"The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light" Rom. 13:12 ESV