I had the unfortunate experience of receiving an email from my dear sister Sheila Musaji at The American Muslim (TAM) who received an email from one of the purveyors of hate against Muslims, Brigitte Gabriel.
In this email, Ms. Gabriel took the opportunity to use the death of a soldier as a means to raise money for her organization.
Now it’s one thing to line your pockets and rocket to celebrity status in some sad circles in America off the hate and venom towards Muslims and Islam, but to use the sacrifice of one of America’s fallen heroes to do so is not only sick, and dishonorable, but any American of true conscience should find it utterly deplorable.
What really angers me when it comes to the Brigette Gabriel’s, Wafa Sultan’s, Walid Shoebat’s, etc. of the world, you know the darlings of so-called “Evangelical” “Christians” is that these foreign born hate mongers get away with using any tool at their disposal to help sell books, get TV appearances, and get paid big dollars to speak to so-called “patriotic” and “concerned” “Christian” Americans. Many of these groups who love and pay these characters gleefully do so waving American flags, yet they don’t seem to notice that these individuals and specifically Ms. Gabriel in this instance are willing to do something that is deplorable to most Americans which is exploit a soldiers death to raise cash.
America is the greatest country on Earth. We are blessed with the Freedom of Speech, however, that freedom often allows the rules of common decency to be thrown away.
I have to ask, has Ms. Gabriel or any of her cohorts in this new career path ever worn the uniform of the United States Military?
Do they personally know what it feels like to take an oath to protect and defend the very Constitution that they use to dishonor one’s service and sometimes ultimate sacrifice?
Yet, they and others are perfectly willing to patrol the ranks of the radical right wing and so-called “Christian” circuit spewing crap and using soldiers deaths if it serves their purposes.
I often wonder if they would care so much or be willing to be so pseudo-outraged and pseudo-patriotic if and when they learned that often the very Soldier, Sailor, Airman, or US Marine just happened to be a Muslim, just happens to be have a crescent on their tombstone in Arlington.
But of course, the reality that Muslims have fought and died for this country in wars past and in the current wars seems to elude these people.
The fact the Muslims serve within the government in both parties also eludes them as well.
In fact I don’t really believe that these truths really elude them. I believe these are highly intelligent people who know the truth, know the facts, and most importantly know how to make lots of money playing the “anti” crowd like a fiddle.
They probably go home laughing it up thinking about how much money they make off of books and appearances by riling the “rednecks” up.
I have a hunch that these people much like those at the head the GOP sit back with their education and money in their nice houses and laugh it up all the way to the bank because they know that the element they both exploit are too zealous in their “ways” to realize that at the end of the day the very ones they listen to, read, etc. with tears in their eyes, waving their flags and chanting “USA” are actually exploiting and laughing at them, probably, and this is my personal theory, calling them backwood hillbillies all along.
This of course is nothing new in the history of man, the rich and powerful always found a way to manipulate the lower classes by playing on their religious fervor and their fears of the dangerous outsider. History has shown us that the one who should be feared the most is not the outsider who often never really poses a physical threat (I mean the largest group that is actually the most at risk from a terrorist attack is ironically Muslims) but it’s often the one behind the curtain pointing the finger at the boogey man who doesn’t believe, look, (insert difference) like you.
That said, what’s a veteran like me to do? Well my ranting won’t change anything. Ms. Gabriel and the rest of the darlings of the evangelicals will still make their millions selling the “be scared of the Muslims who actually pose more of a threat to Muslims in a Baghdad market than a white Christians of middle America in Walmart” books while I will still sit here trying to support a large family in a bad economy like most other Americans.
However, I will do so as a proud Muslim who proudly serves this country, whose family has done the same since WWI and who has a two first cousins in the sandbox right now, one in Afghanistan and one in Iraq.
While Ms. Gabriel will exploit service to make more money, those like me who actually walked the walk and actually have family and friends doing the same, will continue to fight for her right to do so.
The irony is that many of us will be the very evil Muslims she makes money off of by saying that we actually hate the country we fight and die for.
What nerve……
Remembering a Fallen Soldier…
Remembering What We Are Up Against
and Why We Must – and Will – Prevail
by Brigitte Gabriel
Dear Concerned,
I don’t believe I’ve ever written a letter quite like this to you before. Indeed, it is difficult to write this without tears welling up in my eyes.
It started as a rainy Friday morning in late August. I was flying from my presentation in Springfield, Missouri, to my next destination connecting through Atlanta. Little did I know that what I was about to experience that day was going to shake me to the depth of my soul, inflame my passion for our country (I didn’t think it was possible to be more passionate) and remind me why ACT! for America is so important to our security and the future of America.
I looked out my window at gloomy Atlanta as the plane took off, closed my eyes and pictured home and my loving family meeting me at the airport with open arms, smiles and kisses, waiting to whisk me off to Outback Steak House for dinner as planned.
It was a quiet, uneventful flight. No beverage service. No announcements from the captain — until we landed at our final destination:
|
“Welcome to “…….” . Ladies and Gentleman we have a special request to ask of you. We are carrying on this plane today a fallen soldier brought home from Afghanistan. His body is accompanied by Sgt. “……”. Please kindly allow Sgt. “….” to deplane first so he can do his job in escorting the body below. We will leave the seat belt sign on until the body has been taken off the plane. Then when the seat belt sign is turned off, you can deplane.” |
The plane continued slowly down the runway as the captain’s shocking announcement reverberated among the passengers. As we taxied closer to our gate, tears began to flow as we saw a police car, a military hearse, and a team of Marines standing in formation waiting to carry the body.
And the saddest scene of all — his family, wife and children, all lined up against the wall waiting for him.
Burning tears were flowing down my face as my heart sank into utter pain and agony at such a sight. We always hear about this on the news and feel sad but to experience it in person is completely different.
We pulled up to our gate and Sgt. “….” stood up in all his gloriously decorated uniform, opened up the overhead compartment carrying a folded American flag and a back pack, and started walking out of the plane amid the clapping and tears of all of us on board.
No one in the plane even touched their cell phone. People were transfixed, staring out the window, sharing our respect and sorrow. At that moment we were not Democrats, Republicans or Independents. We were Americans soberly watching one of our own come home in a coffin draped with an American flag.
As they removed the body from the plane, two men holding his wife started walking towards the plane as the wife covered her face and began sobbing. She was followed by her children. The Marines walked in formation and carried his body to the hearse.
We started getting out of our seats and deplaning without a word from anyone except the sounds of crying coming from different people looking out the window as they walked out of the plane.
As I entered the airport, people were standing in lines and rows facing the window watching all this.
Some men were saluting the body. We all stood next to each other, honoring this soldier until his body was finally in the hearse and he was driven off the tarmac.
It was the most sobering, heartbreaking, and patriotic scene. As I cried for the following few hours sitting with my family at home eating Chinese take-out for dinner (I just wasn’t up to going out for dinner), I was reminded of why we need to continually remind Americans that we are at war.
Our men and women are fighting and dying overseas to protect America from an enemy who is not only fighting us across the globe but also advancing here at home.
Just because we have not been successfully attacked at home doesn’t mean our enemy has forgotten about us. Their tactics have become more sophisticated. They not only wish to attack us militarily, they are moving at full speed in the advance of their cultural Jihad invading America.
Islamic foot-washing basins in airports; Shariah finance being introduced by American banks; college campuses designating Islamic prayer rooms for Muslims only; Islamic compounds practicing Shariah law springing up across America; public schools using our tax dollars to indoctrinate American students into Islam; demands by Muslim parents that their children be provided private prayer rooms in their public schools; Muslim workers demanding special workplace accommodations no other religious person would ask for; and the list goes on.
As history demonstrates, only organized resistance will stop this. Unopposed by organized resistance, the advance of cultural Jihad in Europe has proceeded to the point that many think a full-blown “Eurabia” is inevitable and irreversible.
And even if we win the war against Islamic terrorism, but lose the struggle against cultural Jihad here at home, we may protect our safety but lose our liberties and our way of life. I just don’t believe this young man who fell on the field of battle would consider that a victory.
“Freedom” is not just freedom from the physical harm our Islamist enemies want to inflict on us. It is freedom from the tyranny and oppression of shariah Islamic law and the supremacist political ideology our enemies are determined to impose upon us.
So, just as that soldier was on the front lines of this war overseas, we are on the “front lines” here at home. That soldier was part of the “organized resistance” in Afghanistan. We are part of the “organized resistance” here in America.
We cannot afford to fail in our military missions overseas. Failure would embolden and empower Islamists throughout the world.
We also cannot afford to fail here at home.
This is why I appeal to you to take heart and help me continue building ACT! for America. We are the only nationwide organized resistance to this threat. As I said, we are the front lines here at home.
Our families, our communities and our nation are depending on us, even though many do not yet realize it.
For instance, two years ago ACT helped pass the bill in Congress that protects every citizen from lawsuits when they report suspicious activity in public places.
How many Americans know this happened? Very few. Yet they are now protected from lawsuits, which means America is safer as a result.
I know there are other issues right now, such as health care and the economy, that are dominating the attention of the American people. And I understand why that is.
But for those of us, you and me, who grasp the seriousness of the threat of radical Islam, we must continue to do everything we can to make sure that the reason 9/11 occurred is not forgotten. That the reason we are fighting in Afghanistan is not forgotten.
We must continue to push forward, to inform, organize, and ring the alarm bells, even when it feels like a lot of people aren’t paying attention right now or don’t seem to “get it.”
Because there are many good Americans out there ready to respond to our message, if we can only get it to them.
Because we are the modern “Paul Revere’s,” the messengers who are warning America even when a lot of America is preoccupied with other matters. It is estimated that over 2/3 of the colonists either were loyal to Britain or were indifferent to the political struggles the colonies were experiencing in 1776.
Yet, through the leadership and sacrifice of the remaining colonists, independence was declared and Britain was defeated.
How I wish I could be standing in your presence this very moment, to grasp your hands, look into your eyes, and say “be encouraged!”
We will win this struggle against radical Islam. It won’t be tomorrow, or next year, but we will, in time, prevail — so long as good, patriotic Americans like you do not lose hope and keep taking action.
We are winning victories, and we will continue to win more – and bigger – victories, so long as good, patriotic Americans like you do not lose hope and keep taking action.
Let’s remember how far we have come together. In less than two years we have built the largest grassroots organization in America dedicated to combating the threat of radical Islam, with 62,000 members and 315 local chapters.
Be encouraged!
I want to close with this. Last week, when Guy Rodgers and I were at the EMP conference in Niagara, NY, the president of a national security organization sat down with us and thanked us profusely for what ACT! for America is doing and has already accomplished.
I wish you could have seen his face and heard his words. This is a man who has served at high levels of government and been around Washington politics for decades.
His message to us – and ultimately to you – was that ACT! for America is KEY to all our efforts to defeat radical Islam. He has watched us grow, witnessed our activism, and rejoiced for our victories.
So I’ll say it again. Be encouraged!
Always devoted,
Brigitte Gabriel
An American Muslim 