When you are an apostate of Islam, fear and dread follow you. Despite remaining out of sight for days at a time, these feelings never quite leave, they simply remain silent until those quiet moments when I again hear their whispered warnings and hushed threats; imagining them prancing like demons around my lifeless body.
I left Islam. I converted to Christianity, and by doing so, I must be killed.
The Orlando shooter, Omar Seddique Mateen, a Muslim man born in America to Afghani parents had chosen the short path to paradise by committing an act of violent jihad in order to further the establishment of Allah’s kingdom on earth. A kingdom that has no room for homosexuals, as the text of the Koran and Hadiths make clear.
Mateen’s former wife appeared, describing a man with a violent temper and little interest in self-restraint. She described him as “unstable.”
However, the shooter beating his wife, abusing her physically and emotionally doesn’t make him a mentally disturbed man, but rather shows him to be a very devout Muslim. In Islam, it is a husband’s duty to beat a recalcitrant wife.
As if on cue, the political left is once again crafting a false narrative to keep the public in the dark about the Islamic genesis of jihadi terror.
A particularly distressing example came from CNN news anchor Don Lemon. Mr. Lemon, as an openly gay member of the press corps, is uniquely positioned to lead the discussion about the nexus between Islam’s medieval hostility toward homosexuals, and the “live and let live” ethos of modern western societies. Forty-nine members of the LGBT community were summarily executed by an adherent to Islam and Mr. Lemon still could not bring himself to identify the perpetrator’s motivation. Mere hours after the echoes of gunfire had faded, Mr. Lemon said “the shooter in Orlando is clearly someone who has distorted Islam.”
Both Islam and Christianity consider engaging in homosexual acts to be a sin, however the difference in response is night and day. Mohammed said to kill homosexuals, with no exceptions. “Kill the one who sodomizes and the one who lets it be done to him” — Tirmidhi, a sahih (authentic) hadith. Jesus chose to die on the Cross, for them to be saved.
While there are a number of different strains of Muslims, many of which publicly eschew violence, there is only “one Shariah,” and it is the foundation in common for all of Islam. These ancient governing laws are drawn from Islamic scripture, (often established as a religious duty by Mohammed himself) and have not changed in 1,400 years — nor has the violence contained within.
Mateen was not observing ISIS or al Qaeda directives when he murdered 49 people. He was exercising his duty as a Sharia-compliant Muslim. Americans respect the right of Muslims to practice their religion freely, but religious freedom does not concurrently declare such practices be left free of scrutiny, especially when said religion teaches violence and murder as religious duty and devotion.
Muhammad said to kill homosexuals with no exceptions. How is this unclear? This worldview is taught every day in Sharia-observant mosques throughout our country. Just a few miles down the road from Orlando in the suburb of Sanford, Sheikh Farrokh Sekaleshfar told those at the Husseini Islamic Center that the appropriate manner for dealing with homosexuals is to kill them, as that is the compassionate response.
“Death is the sentence,” he said. “We know there’s nothing to be embarrassed about this, death is the sentence.”
But President Obama, Don Lemon, Hillary Clinton, and others insist we must wait and see. We should not be asking what spurred a Muslim to such horrific violence. Instead, we are told to limit our inquiry to the symptoms of the problem and chalk it up to the usual scapegoats: guns, homophobia, bigotry and hate.
Through 9/11, the Boston bombings, Fort Hood, Chattanooga, San Bernardino, Orlando, we have waited too long and seen too much. These are all acts of Islamic terror perpetrated on American soil, by, in many cases, American Muslims; all in the furtherance of establishing Allah’s hegemony over the earth and all that is in it.
These acts of terror are not a hijacking of Islam from the peaceful religion it was designed to be. Rather, these acts are the true face of Islam, and until we acknowledge it for what it is, we will continue to be victims, bowing at the feet of our executioners.
I came to America to escape the consequences of leaving a bellicose and aggressive “religion.” I fled to protect myself and my family from the sword of irredentist Islam, unchanged and unreformed since the Dark Ages. I ran from the orgy of blood and brutality that is Sharia-compliant Islam, only to find that my refuge is blindly permitting such evil to take root and grow here in my adopted land.
I know the root of my fear. I recognize the origins of the dread I feel. If homosexuals are to be killed so brutally for their sin, how much worse will it be for me for my far greater offense of denying Islam? I know, in my heart, who is next, and I weep that our nation may let it be so.
Mark Christian is the president and executive director of the Global Faith Institute. A former Muslim Sunni imam, he converted from Islam to Christianity.