I have posted this comparison before on Jihad Watch, on earlier Independence Days, but it always bears repeating and keeping in mind, for the nature of the struggle has not changed, and will not change. It is the eternal struggle over whether human beings will live free, or willingly submit to slavery.
I see slaves seeking slavery, and slaves defending slavery, all over the world today. I see people defending oppressors and carrying water for bullies and tyrants. I see freedom fighters being vilified and demonized, often by short-sighted self-seekers who delude themselves into thinking that in doing so they are serving the cause of freedom as well.
In reality, this is what it is all about. You are either fighting for one thing, or the other. It is always useful to check one's daily efforts against this, for if you're not working to advance the cause of one side of this comparison, you're working to advance the other.
1. Freedom of religion, and non-establishment of religion
What we must defend:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." — First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
What we must defend it against:
"Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth." — CAIR co-founder and longtime Board Chairman Omar Ahmad (he denies saying it, but the original reporter stands by her story)
"I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future." — CAIR's Ibrahim Hooper
The Muslim Brotherhood “must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.” — Mohamed Akram, “An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America,” May 22, 1991
2. Freedom of speech
What we must defend:
"Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press..." — First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
What we must defend it against:
"In confronting the Danish cartoons and the Dutch film 'Fitna', we sent a clear message to the West regarding the red lines that should not be crossed. As we speak, the official West and its public opinion are all now well-aware of the sensitivities of these issues. They have also started to look seriously into the question of freedom of expression from the perspective of its inherent responsibility, which should not be overlooked." — Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary General of the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference
"Pakistan will ask the European Union countries to amend laws regarding freedom of expression in order to prevent offensive incidents such as the printing of blasphemous caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) and the production of an anti-Islam film by a Dutch legislator..." — Daily Times, June 8, 2008
3. Equality of rights before the law
What we must defend:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." — Declaration of Independence
What we must defend it against:
"The indemnity for the death or injury of a woman is one-half the indemnity paid for a man. The indemnity paid for a Jew or Christian is one-third the indemnity paid for a Muslim. The indemnity paid for a Zoroastrian is one-fifteenth that of a Muslim." — 'Umdat al-Salik, o4.9
"Thus if [a] Muslim commits adultery his punishment is 100 lashes, the shaving of his head, and one year of banishment. But if the man is not a Muslim and commits adultery with a Muslim woman his penalty is execution...Similarly if a Muslim deliberately murders another Muslim he falls under the law of retaliation and must by law be put to death by the next of kin. But if a non-Muslim who dies at the hand of a Muslim has by lifelong habit been a non-Muslim, the penalty of death is not valid. Instead the Muslim murderer must pay a fine and be punished with the lash....Since Islam regards non-Muslims as on a lower level of belief and conviction, if a Muslim kills a non-Muslim…then his punishment must not be the retaliatory death, since the faith and conviction he possesses is loftier than that of the man slain...Again, the penalties of a non-Muslim guilty of fornication with a Muslim woman are augmented because, in addition to the crime against morality, social duty and religion, he has committed sacrilege, in that he has disgraced a Muslim and thereby cast scorn upon the Muslims in general, and so must be executed....Islam and its peoples must be above the infidels, and never permit non-Muslims to acquire lordship over them." — Sultanhussein Tabandeh, A Muslim Commentary on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
4. Governments deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed
What we must defend:
"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed..." — Declaration of Independence
What we must defend it against:
Non-Muslims have "absolutely no right to seize the reins of power in any part of God’s earth nor to direct the collective affairs of human beings according to their own misconceived doctrines." If they do, "the believers would be under an obligation to do their utmost to dislodge them from political power and to make them live in subservience to the Islamic way of life." — Syed Abul Ala Maududi, founder of the Pakistani political party Jamaat-e-Islami
Never surrender. Never submit. Never be silenced. Freedom and independence forever.
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