Pat Robertson attacks Islam

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TRANSCRIPT OF HANNITY & COLMES

FOX NEWS NETWORK
September 18, 2002 Wednesday

GUESTS: Pat Robertson
HOSTS: Sean Hannity, Alan Colmes

COLMES: I'm Alan Colmes. We're back on HANNITY & COLMES.

Coming up tonight, why is one prison in California denying black inmates their right to have visitors? Is this discrimination
veiled in the guise of security? We'll debate that. First, joining us now, the chairman and founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network, the Reverend Pat Robertson.

Reverend Robertson, always good to have you on the program. PAT ROBERTSON, CHRISTIAN BROADCASTING NETWORK: Hey, it's a pleasure as usual.

COLMES: All right, sir. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops president, William Gregory, said yesterday that it would be
difficult to justify preemptive attack under Roman Catholic teachings on warfare. Where do you stand on that?

ROBERTSON: I would tell the good bishop to read the book of Habakkuk in the Old Testament and see what it says about those who kill and pillage and rape and hurt innocent people, that the judgment of the Lord needs to come on them. And you know, with Saddam Hussein, 500,000 innocent Iranians killed, 5,000 to 6,000 Kurds gassed. Who knows how many Shi'ite Muslims and how many of his enemies? He actually boils them in oil. This man is a horrible monster. And...

COLMES: You know, nobody denies that. Nobody is saying they love Saddam Hussein. The question is, what is proper? What is just? Should the United States take a preemptive strike? And does that violate Christian teaching for the United States to be the one to decide we're going after this guy?

ROBERTSON: Well, somebody has got to enforce this. You know, we've been spending a billion dollars a year on that no-fly zone over there every year since the Gulf War. And we went in to help the innocent. We went in to help the oppressed, the Kuwaitis. And now others are being oppressed. And the bible says to lift the yolk of oppression from those who would hurt the
innocent and the non-combatants, if you will.

COLMES: You've come on this show many times. We've talked about members of the religion of Islam on this program, your view of people of that religion. And you have often said that not enough have spoken out about the atrocity of September 11. And I want to show you the statement of the Study of Islam and Democracy, signed on by dozens and dozens of individuals and groups where they said, "We wish again to state unequivocally that neither the al-Qaeda organization nor Usama bin Laden represents Islam or reflects Muslim beliefs and practice. Rather, groups like al-Qaeda have misused and abused Islam in order to fit their own radical and indeed anti-Islamic agenda."

And this is again signatories all over the place, dozens. They speak for mainstream Muslims in America and worldwide.

ROBERTSON: You know, I hate to tell you, Alan, but that is absolute falsehood, not on your part, but on the part of those who signed it. All you have to do is read the writings of Mohammed in the Koran. He urges people to attack the infidels. He urges his followers to kill Christians and Jews. He talks about eradicating all of the Jews. This man was an absolute wild-eyed fanatic. He was a robber and a brigand. And to say that these terrorists distort Islam, they're carrying out Islam.

HANNITY: Reverend, how widespread do you think that fanatical interpretation is? Do you think it's mainstream? Or do
you think it's the majority of Muslims?

ROBERTSON: I think there are many Muslims, just like there are many Catholics and there are many Jews and there are many
Protestants, that don't really understand what their religion believes. And they go along. And they're just kind of easy to get along with folks.

But I think that in the Muslim world, you look at where the terror is, you look at where the dictators are, you look at where the oppression is, and it's all in the Muslim world. And I think especially with Saudi Arabia and Syria and Iran, there is a typical Muslim state. That's a Muslim theocracy.

HANNITY: Yes.

ROBERTSON: And look what the Taliban did in Afghanistan. I mean, these people were carrying out fundamental Muslim teaching.

HANNITY: So Islam is a threat bigger than what most people are willing to say publicly?

ROBERTSON: I don't think there's any question about it. And I think the sooner we confront the enemy and say look, this is the teaching these people. You know, I majored in history in college. And we learned about jihad. Mohammed declared jihad against the infidels. And he carried that thing all the way up to Bordeaux in Spain and the Ottomans, were all the way up to Hungary on the other side of Europe.

HANNITY: What is that -- what do mainstream Muslims to think when they hear what you're saying? Is it that -- I mean, because you're going right to the heart and soul of their religion. And you're saying it's predicated on these things, take neither Christians and Jews for your friends. You talk about jihad, holy war. Some people have argued on this program no, no, that's not interpreted correctly. What -- I mean, it's a pretty direct frontal attack against them. What are they to think when they hear that?

ROBERTSON: All I would say, if you read the teachings of Jesus, he talks about peace. He talks about love your enemies. He
talks about do good to them that persecute you. You read the Koran, it says wage war against your enemies. Kill them if you possibly can. And destroy anybody who doesn't agree with you.I mean, it's all laid out in the Koran. And what is called the hadif (ph), the -- you know, interpretation of what Mohammed said, that this whole thing is in my opinion, is a monumental scam, if you really understand what went on back there in the early days of Mohammed.

HANNITY: Do you think it's inevitable, then, that the world is going to be in conflict, perhaps even at war, with Islam for many
decades to come?

ROBERTSON: Unless our government and the leaders recognize the threat, the answer is absolutely yes. And when you see what's done to Christians in Indonesia, for example, when you see the persecution in Saudi Arabia. Here you look at Sudan. They killed two million plus Christians because of Shiria (ph). In Nigeria right now, they're getting ready to stone a woman to death for adultery. And it just goes on and on and on, the list of horror.

COLMES: We're going to take a quick break.

ROBERTSON: Yes.

COLMES: I want to talk to you about your statement that Islam is a sham when we get back. More with Pat Robertson after this.

Later, since that brutal attack on three prison guards in August, black inmates in a California prison are being punished. Is
this a blatant case of racial profiling? That's ahead on HANNITY & COLMES tonight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Still to come, a brutal attack in California in a prison leads to a crackdown on some of the inmates. But why are some people screaming racism? We'll debate that. We'll tell you about it.First, we continue with the Reverend Pat Robertson. Reverend, look, I hate to even say this, I don't want to even think this, but I'm really coming to the conclusion that Tom Daschle and some of the Democrats seem not to have learned a lot from September 11. There is this desire, this gullibility. They're just gullible as -- they want to believe Saddam Hussein after 12 years of lie after lie after lie. And I think that lack of wisdom makes this country vulnerable and susceptible because it allows him, buys him time to get his weapons of mass destruction.

ROBERTSON: You know, Sean, he has violated seven clear-cut resolutions of the United Nations Security Council. Not one, not two, not three, but seven of them. Not to mention the additional internal discussions along the way. He stiffed the inspectors every time. He has prevented them from discovering these weapons of mass destruction. He has an estimated 600
tons of deadly gases and biological chemical agents. Who knows how much nuclear material he's got? The Ukrainians are talking about missing 200 nuclear devices. And if they fell into his hands, we may be in deadly peril from this man. He's a madman.

HANNITY: But the left doesn't get that. They want one more chance. We've got to try to allow the inspectors in. One more time. All it does is buy him time to seek new weapons of mass destruction, allows himself to create alliances with terror groups. And if he ever gets them, he may not have the means of launching them from here, but he certainly can get them to
Israel. And he certainly perhaps can get across our borders if he has, you know, alliance with a terrorist organization. They don't get it. They don't get it. They didn't get it when Reagan was fighting the Cold War. They want to abolish the CIA. The left in America doesn't get it.

ROBERTSON: Well, I've read books recently. And I'm sure you have too that go back in the history. And your own book pointed it out, some of the terrible failings of our intelligence. There's a book just out about the intelligence breakdown...

HANNITY: Yes.

ROBERTSON: ...that shows how the left, as you say, opposed virtually everything. You go back to the church...

COLMES: Oh, reverend.

ROBERTSON: ...they wanted to gut the CIA.

COLMES: First of all, Daschle and Gephardt are on the same page as the president. I showed you quotes just a few minutes ago. They're on the same page. They're not even arguing with him. We had one Democrat on tonight as a guest, who's running for office in Chicago, who's finally speaking out as some -- I think most Democrats should. They're on the same page.
They're capitulating. There's not even healthy debate in this country, reverend. So to say that the left, the evil horrible left is doing the wrong thing, is just not accurate.

ROBERTSON: Well, you know, they know how to put their finger up in the wind and the voters...

COLMES: Oh, come on. You didn't do any polling when you were running for president? You didn't do any polling when you were running for president?

ROBERTSON: Well, of course you do polling, but they have polled. And they've got the control of the Senate at stake. And they know they'll lose.

COLMES: Yes?

ROBERTSON: And the Republicans are beating them up all over the country, in South Dakota, in Iowa, and Georgia, and...

COLMES: We'll see in a few days. Let me show you something you said, the last time you appeared on HANNITY & COLMES. Let's take a look.

ROBERTSON: All right.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: Liberals always lie.

COLMES: Oh, please. Come on.

ROBERTSON: They always lie.

COLMES: Come on, that's not...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLMES: What -- Pat, what would Jesus say about that kind of a comment? Liberals always lie?

HANNITY: Amen.COLMES: Jesus has spoken. Ladies and gentlemen, Jesus has spoken.

HANNITY: He'd say amen.

COLMES: He's come back. He's sitting next to me. We have just seen the second coming. Go ahead.

ROBERTSON: You know, Jesus spoke to the Pharisees. He called them whitewashed tombs. And he said you know, you always speak a falsehood. So he talked about the devil being a liar and the father of lies. So he said some pretty rough words as well.

COLMES: All right. Is that -- do you want to interpret that as anti- liberal, bigotry? You make a blanket statement, liberals lie? Is that -- that's not a Christian like thing to say.

ROBERTSON: Well, it's not Christian but it's true.

HANNITY: It's true.

ROBERTSON: You know...COLMES: Come on. All liberals lie? They all lie. I'm a liar?

ROBERTSON: Oh yes, they lie from time to time. They don't necessarily lie in every word they say...

COLMES: Wow.

ROBERTSON: ...but their general premise is based on falsehood, so often.

COLMES: Reverend, that seems to me like a lack of critical thinking to make such a blanket statement like that about an entire group of people. I am personally hurt. I'm very sensitive, you know. You hurt my feelings.

HANNITY: Aw.

ROBERTSON: They're diminishing -- I'm not sure, you won't even be in that camp. You're too nice a person to be associated with the...

COLMES: All right, this idea -- and about Islam, you say that Islam is scam.

ROBERTSON: Yes.

COLMES: You're insulting the largest religion on the planet, an entire group of people, when you make a statement like you did in the last segment. Islam is a scam. Do you want to qualify that?

ROBERTSON: Can I tell you why? Can I tell you why?

COLMES: Yes.

ROBERTSON: You've heard of mecca. Mecca, there is a black stone. Mohammed's father and grandfather were keeper of 360 sacred rocks at mecca. And they said there was a meteor or something that fell out of the sky. And the most important deity in mecca was the moon god. And he was the same god that was you know, Ur of Kaldez (ph) when Abraham was up there. And his name was Allah. And he had three daughters. And you remember that the Koran that he wrote into the Koran that he thinks that we should worship those three daughters, and then disciples got after him. So he took the (UNINTELLIGIBLE). And Salman Rushdie wrote about the satanic verses.

This whole thing was situational. It took about 20 years to write the entire Koran. 80 percent of it comes from the Jewish and Christian scriptures. He mentions Moses 500 times in the Koran. I mean, it is strictly a theft of Jewish theology. And then he turned around and he murdered all the Jews in Medina. I mean, this man was a killer. And to think that this is a peaceful religion is fraudulent. It just is. I wish people would read the Koran itself and see what it says, because they'd be shocked.

HANNITY: All right, Reverend Robertson, always good to see you. You know what might be a good idea? I think maybe we should you bring back. And I think we need a live, maybe a half hour, an hour debate on the topic. And I don't know if you'd be willing to do that, but I think it would be very informative for our viewers.

ROBERTSON: Well, I think it's one of those things we've got to wake people up before somebody else blows up another tower or hits another military installation.

HANNITY: Reverend Robertson, thank you...

ROBERTSON: Thank you.

HANNITY: ...as always for being with us. Appreciate you being here.

Contact Pat Robertson

Sean Hannity fails to challenge Pat Robertson's Islamophobic rhetoric

CAIR today expressed concern about what it says is a pattern of anti-Muslim bias by Fox News Channel citing Wednesday night's "Hannity & Colmes" program as an example of how the network promotes anti-Muslim hate. On that program, host Sean Hannity seemed to encourage televangelist Pat Robertson in his venomous attack on Islam and on the Prophet Muhammad.

About the Prophet Muhammad, Robertson said: "This man was an absolute wild-eyed fanatic. He was a robber and a brigand. And to say that these terrorists distort Islam, they're carrying out Islam." Instead of challenging those hate-filled remarks, Hannity said: "Reverend, how widespread do you think that fanatical interpretation is? Do you think it's mainstream? Or do you think it's the majority of Muslims?"

After Robertson replied by calling Islam "a monumental scam," Hannity said: "So Islam is a threat bigger than what most people are willing to say publicly?... Do you think it's inevitable, then, that the world is going to be in conflict, perhaps even at war, with Islam for many decades to come?"

In the program's second segment, Robertson said: "[The Quran, Islam's revealed text] is strictly a theft of Jewish theology.I mean, this man [Muhammad] was a killer. And to think that this is a peaceful religion is fraudulent."

"Our office receives daily complaints from concerned Muslims and people of other faiths who say that Fox's news and views on Islam, Muslims or the Middle East are neither fair nor balanced. Venomous and hate-filled remarks like those made by Robertson, and Sean Hannity's failure to challenge those remarks, poison the minds of ordinary viewers and can incite acts of violence against American Muslims," said CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad.

Awad added that in just the past month, there was a shooting attack on an Ohio mosque, vandalism at Islamic center under construction in Virginia and the revelation of a detailed plan to attack some 50 Florida mosques. He also called on American religious and political leaders to repudiate defamatory attacks on the faith of Islam.

As other examples of the network's anti-Muslim bias, Awad cited Fox's inflammatory coverage of last Friday's "terror scare" in Florida, talk show host Bill O'Reilly's comparison of the Quran to Hitler's "Mein Kampf" and the network's tendency to ambush and abuse those Muslims who do appear on its programs. He did however note that Fox's "On the Record" with host Greta Van Susteren often presents fair and balanced coverage of Muslims and Islam.

In a recent CAIR survey, 45 percent of Muslim respondents said Fox News was the media outlet that exhibited the most biased coverage of Islam and Muslims. CAIR is seeking to counter anti-Muslim hate in American society with its Library Project, a campaign to encourage Muslim individuals and groups to sponsor 18-item "library packages" of books, videos and audio cassettes about Islam and Muslims for distribution to as many as 16,000 public libraries nationwide. The package contains books such as "Muhammad," a biography of the Prophet Muhammad by Yahiya Emerick.

SEE: http://www.libraryproject.org

Contact Pat Robertson

Address To the Economic Club of Detroit March 25, 2002

Pat traces the roots of terrorism in the tenets of Islam and in history. He proposes a strategy for overcoming terrorism and predicts ultimate victory.

PatRobertson.com - Thank you so much. It's a great pleasure to be here with you again. I'm going to talk about a subject that I hope you don't find controversial.

Back in 1982, CBN began operating a television station Middle East television Channel 12 on the border of Israel in South Lebanon and we began to experience first hand terror that we had never known in this country. Our studio was car-bombed twice by a group called the Hezbollah. I must say that these people had a certain panache because they didn't blow up old Chevrolets, they blew up Mercedes Benz. Our microwave link to Beirut was the victim or a mortar attack by Hezbollah. Our transmitter was the victim of a rocket attack by the Syrians. And then when Israel withdrew from South Lebanon.

Our facility was overrun by Hezbollah guerillas. Some of our staff, at least seven, were able to flee across the border with a hail of bullets behind them leaving all of their possessions. I was interested to learn that the head of Hezbollah in those days when we first started had a home in Dearborn, Mich. So I would think that somebody who had accepted American values wouldn't make that kind of attack on fellow Americans. But that certainly happened there, and I saw it.

But for the last 30 years, like it or not, America has been at war. We haven't acknowledged that fact until Sept. 11 when for the first time since the war of 1812 our nation was attacked by a foreign power on our soil. America was shocked to realize there were people who wished our destruction. But if I could just go through briefly some of the things that have happened.

• On March 28, 1970 U.S. targets in Beirut were attacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
• In 1973 the U.S. ambassador in Sudan and a. diplomat George Moore were murdered by the Fatah, a Palestinian organization.
• In 1977 the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon was murdered by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
• In 1979 in Tehran Iranian radicals seized the American Embassy.
• In April 1983 in Beirut a truck bomb killed 63 at the U.S. Embassy. That was Hezbollah funded by Iran.
• In 1983 in October a truck bomb killed 241 U.S. Marines. Hezbollah, Iran and Syria were involved.
• In 1984 in Beirut, the head of the American University, Malcolm Kerr, was murdered by the Hezbollah.
• In 1984 in Beirut an American diplomat William Buckley was believed murdered by the Iranians.
• In 1984 a suicide bomb attacked the U.S. Embassy, killing 23.
• In 1985 a cruise ship was taken and an American was killed.
• In 1985 in Rome 13 were murdered including five Americans. That was done by a Syrian.
• In 1986 in Athens four Americans were killed in a plane bombing. This was the responsibility of Palestians called the Fatah.
• In Karachi 22 were killed on a Pan Am flight, including two Americans.
• In 1988 in Lebanon U.S. Col. William Higgins was murdered by Hezbollah.
• In 1988 in Lockerbie, Scotland, a Pan Am flight was blown up in mid-air, killing 270 people. These were Libyan terrorists.
• In 1993 in Langley, Va. a Pakistani gunman killed two CIA employees.
• In February 1993 a massive bomb exploded in the basement of the World Trade Center, killing six and wounding 1,042. The mastermind fled to Pakistan and was later arrested.
• In 1993 in Kuwait there was an attempted assassination of President Bush by Iraqi intelligence.
• In 1995 Pakistani gunmen killed two U.S. diplomats.
• In November 1995 a Saudi Arabian car bomb killed five Americans.
• In June 1996 in Saudi Arabia, a truck bomb killed 19 U.S. soldiers wounded 515 of them. That was the Saudi version of the Hezbollah.
• In 1998 in Nairobi, Kenya a car bomb at the U.S. Embassy killed 292, including 12 Americans. That was Al Quaeda.
• In October of 2000 in Yemen a suicide squad rammed the U.S.S. Cole, killing 12. Again Al Quaeda.
• And then on September 11 we know the tragedy that took place.

That last incident at the World Trade Center and then the Pentagon has cost the United States economy $640 billion and that number is still going up as our entire economy has been ground somewhat down by the delays in air travel and the other things that are before us.

And as we are looking at what is going to be happening in the future, we're told by the government, the FBI, the head of our Homeland Security that we are on a yellow alert.

Last night on CBS' 60 Minutes, there was a report detailing the danger to our ports. I personally have felt that they are the most vulnerable parts of our society right now. And I am personally knowledgeable of the fact that one of the pilots of the planes that hit the World Trade Center spent time in my city of Virginia Beach. He actually dined at an Italian restaurant where I go from time to time. He made reconnaissance of the Naval base in Norfolk, and somebody else was seen on a boat outside the Fort Monroe headquarters of the Continental Army Command .

But according to 60 Minutes, we have only 2 percent of the containers that are brought into the ports of America that are actually searched by the Customs. That means 98 percent of all the containers that come in are uninspected and there are 40,000 ships that come into our ports every day. And the likelihood of tracing some kind of nuclear material if it was given a lead shield even in a tanker or freighter carrying bulk chemicals or bulk supplies would be virtually impossible.

And all of our seaports, all of the ports, are vulnerable, including this area here which is part of the Great Lakes system. So every major port city, whether it's on the West Coast or East Coast is potentially vulnerable.

Interestingly enough, in this morning's paper the report was that 48 percent of the trials against our airport security were successful carrying guns, knives and explosive type material. And an equal number of people were able to gain access without authorization onto the tarmacs of our nation's airports and also to gain entrance into the airports and the airplanes themselves. That's U.S.A. Today.

Ladies and Gentlemen: We as a nation are still extremely vulnerable. And people say and I'm sure you've heard it said and our president said it -- we have just a few terrorists who are engaged in this type of activity.

We can't understand why they want to do this to us. What is there about America that incites this kind of hatred? Because a Gallup survey made among the leading Muslim countries indicated that about 52-53 percent of them did not like America. Why not? What is it that is inciting this?

Well over the last 30 years during this time of violence that has gone on, the birth rate has exploded in these countries. There's a tremendous amount of poverty, but the well over 60 percent of the people in these countries are under 30 years of age. Where are they getting their training? They are being trained in mosques by radical clergy who think that Osama bin Laden is one of their heroes and they feel, as the Ayatolla Khomeini, used to say, that America is the great Satan. They feel somehow that we are the enemy and they have therefore a spiritual duty to overcome us. Now it's been said of the Islamic faith that it is a peaceful religion. Obviously, there are millions of people in adherence to Islam who are very peaceful. They are lovely people. I have known many in dealing in the Middle East and you know many in America. So I would never begin to indict an entire religion. But I do think we need to step back in history because George Santayana said those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to live them again.

Go back to the year 632 when Mohammed the progenitor and prophet of Islam died. Islam means submission -- it doesn't mean peace. And he said the duty of his followers was to wage jihad against those who were not adherents to Islam. I have taken down some of the quotes in the Quran. And you'd be interested to know that in this holy book there are 120 references to warfare against the infidels. Mohammed himself was a warrior. He organized at least 50 raids in Saudi Arabia and personally was involved in warfare in 27 of them.

And these are just some of the quotes from the one who founded this particular religion.

He said in the Hadif:
The best deed of man is to believe in Allah and his Apostle. The second best deed is to participate in jihad in Allah's cause.

He also said in the Quran:
Fight and slay the pagans wherever you find them. Seize them, beleaguer them and lie in wait for them. Fight them. Allah will punish them by your hands and bring them to disgrace.

He also said in the Quran:
Oh ye that believe, take not Christians and Jews as your friends and protectors. Fight with them until there is no more persecution. Religion should only be for Allah.

And he also said:
The last hour will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and the Muslims kill them.

And you say, "Well this was very extreme," but I have before me a report from Fox News that is quoting the Washington Post. And this says, "Can it be true that Islamic schools in the U.S. teach hatred toward Americans, Christians and Jews. The Washington Post on Monday revealed that one such school outside Washington D.C. uses textbooks teaching 11th graders that, 'The day of judgment can't come until Jesus Christ returns to earth, breaks the cross and converts everyone to Islam and until Muslims start attacking Jews.' At the same school they are taught that Osama bin Laden is 'simply the victim of prejudice against Muslims in America.' And the Washington Islamic Academy that teaches about 1,300 children and is founded by Saudi Arabia has a textbook that says 'One sign of the day of judgment will be that Muslims will fight and kill Jews who will hide behind trees and say 'Oh Muslim, oh servant of God there is a Jew hiding behind me. Come here and kill him.'"

Now Ladies and Gentlemen, that is not a peaceful religion. And it's not something from ancient history. It's something from now. But if you go back in 632 with the death of Mohammed, he urged his followers to begin a jihad against all those who were not part of the Islamic tradition. He first of all took all of Saudi Arabia and waged war against it until they converted to Islam. He then moved across the formerly Christian populations of North Africa ,and Islam spread as far as northern India to the east and all the way up into Spain. They then moved from Spain into southern France in the area of Bordeaux. And in 732 in something called the Battle of Tours a man named Charles Martel organized the French Knights and they stood against the Muslim invaders and repulsed them. They went back into Spain where they had domination over Spain for about 760 years.

And finally in 1492, the last of this influence was removed from Spain and there was a victory. But shortly thereafter on the other side of Islam came the Ottoman Empire which in 1492 overwhelmed the last Christian bastion in that Middle East area, the city of Constantinople, and installed their government and went from there up into the Balkans. In the Battle of Kosovo they defeated the European Christians and began to brutalize the population until such time as they went all the way to the gates of Vienna in Austria where they were finally repulsed at the Battle of Vienna. And then in a great sea battle, they were finally overwhelmed. Otherwise, we all would have been speaking Arabic and the entire United States of America and Europe would have been given over to Islam. Now that is the history of so-called jihad. That is the war against the infidel that was preached by Mohammed and that is the history.

The Christians in the European areas had to fight for their lives lest they were forcibly converted to this religion.

In the Islamic teaching, once the Islamic people overcome a country, it is given to them by Allah. If someone takes it away from them, they are stealing from Allah. So guess what, there's a country in the Middle East called Israel and it is the belief of the entire Islamic world that this country is illegitimate that they have stolen Allah's territory. And it must be gotten back. I submit to you today that any peace negotiation that is being carried on right now is illusory. And whatever promises are being given by heads of state about peace will not last because in the mosques the people are being taught that Israel is illegitimate. Yasar Arafat is the grandson of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. The Grand Mufti back in the days of World War II said, "Adolf Hitler only went part of the way. I want to finish what he began in regard to the Jews ."

Now this is not peace. I believe those of us who love peace have to understand what we're up against. Again, I want to repeat, we're not looking at a huge group. There's a billion 200 million people who subscribe to Islam. Many of them don't understand these teachings. Many of them don't subscribe to them. Many of them have different points of view. I'm sure many of those adherents to Islam in the United States of America don't understand them. But in the radical Middle East these are the teachings that are being taught to millions of people. And if you estimate 250-300 million people subscribe to these extreme points of view, you have a very serious situation.

In the Islamic tradition everything that is taken by Islam is called the land of peace. Everything that is not taken is called Dar al-Harb. That means the land of war and you are sitting today in Dar al-Harb. Detroit Dar al-Harb. We are the land of war, and anyplace not under the land of peace is fair game for the land of war. This is why people will fly into buildings and kill themselves. This is why people will not have any compunction whatever to blow up innocent women and children. This is why extreme car bombers will go into a shopping center in Israel or a pizza parlor or a bar mitzvah and kill themselves in order to take thousands or hundreds of others out. Because they are told if they die in the cause of jihad, they will go immediately to paradise, and therefore they will be given 72 virgins as their reward.

We must understand what we are up against. We must understand the history.

I might add that in 1095 one of the popes said we have to fight fire with fire, and he authorized the Crusade. And he said those who participate in the Crusade against the Muslim will gain access to paradise in the event they are killed. So he launched on the side of Christianity a jihad comparable to what had been launched by the Muslims. And so when the president mentions a crusade, you can see everybody's back get up. Because these folks in the Middle East remember that. They remember. They remember history. They consider Spain as part of their territory. They consider Palestine as part of their territory. In the schools mentioned in the Washington Post article on the maps of the Middle East, there is no word for Israel. That whole section is called Palestine. Because that didn't belong to anybody except Allah.

Ladies and Gentlemen: This is a religious struggle we are involved in. It is a clash of cultures. It is a clash of opposing points of view. It is a clash of different ideologies. And we need to understand what we're dealing with and how to deal with it.

I would submit to you several things in closing of what can be done because I think there are some things. First of all, I applaud our president. He has taken forthright action against terrorists. He's identified the terrorists. He's made it clear we will go after terrorists and deal with them. And I think as it says in the Archives Building, "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." And we as Americans must be diligent.

The second thing I believe we need to do is to support insurgencies in Iraq and Iran. The Iranian people are tired of a theocratic rule under the Ayatollahs. They want to be free. The women want to be free. They want to have a chance to live a normal life, and if we play that right, there will be insurgencies against that theocracy that is controlling the country and ruining it.

As far as Iraq, we've missed two opportunities to get him. We should have gotten Sadaam Hussein after the Gulf War. We had him on the run with the Republican Guard and we missed a golden opportunity. In the Clinton Administration a CIA agent told me we had an insurgency going in Iraq that would have taken out Sadaam Hussein but that on orders of Bill Clinton and Anthony Lake they were told to stand down. The United States would not support it. We could have won that.

The last thing I think we need to do is to go to war with Iraq because it will be perceived in the Arab world as an attack on Muslim people by the United States and it will not be won.

But there needs to be a targeted action against Sadaam Hussein himself because he is a source of terror. Just like the Hezbollah is funded by Iran and through Syria so also Iraq is a source of terror and deadly terror with biological, nuclear and chemical warfare.

The next thing that I recommend is that we shut off the flow of hostile immigration in the United States. We cannot let people who are our avowed enemies come in and enjoy the privileges of citizenship in this country. There has to be some stop at our borders. Our borders are very porous and there has to be some control over who comes in as students and who comes in, in whatever capacity.

The next thing that is very important is that we dramatically build up our counterintelligence capability with the authority to bring to justice known terrorist operatives. The CIA was literally gutted during Stanfield Turner's administration under Jimmy Carter. And subsequently, according to Robert Baer who wrote a book called See No Evil, the leading politicians wanted to keep this business under the rug. They did not want to bring the American people the terror that was building in the Middle East because it wasn't politically advantageous to do so. So the CIA has become complicit in allowing these things to happen. We must have so-called human intelligence on the ground in the Middle East and other parts of the world. And we are sadly lacking in our intelligence-gathering capabilities. And these people have got to have the authority to bring to justice known terrorist operatives.

The next thing we need to do is implement port security as a federal priority.

Another thing that is needed is a crash program to provide computer redundancy and fail-safe mechanisms against cyber terror, which may be the other thing that they are going to do as well. If they could disrupt the computer systems that deal with our financial networks, our bank computers and our intelligence gathering computers, we would be in a very serious way. We need redundancy and we need fail-safe mechanisms that I doubt are totally in place right now.

And from my standpoint, above all, we as a nation as vulnerable as we are in a free country, we need to humbly come before Almighty God and acknowledge our sins and ask for His mercy and ask for His protection. He has graciously protected us since the War of 1812. America has prospered and flourished because God has put a hedge of protection around us. This has been a special country to Him. It's been a land of His choosing. And we need as a people to turn from the way we're going and to acknowledge His sovereignty and to humbly beseech Him for protection from what may be coming from those who are our enemies and those who wish to destroy us. And then by God's grace and by the united action of all of us, this great country is going to overcome whatever terrorism is coming against it. We may have some hits in various places that will be very painful. But we are not going to succumb to terror. We're not going to knuckle under to terror. We are going to win the battle against terror, and we'll come out of this together and stronger. And I hope and pray that out of some difficult days that may be ahead of us we can once again say, as we do in our pledge of allegiance, we are part of "one nation under God." Thank you very much.

SEE: http://www.patrobertson.com/Speeches/TerrorismEconomicClub.asp

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