It may be an American trait to intellectualize evil. We scrutinize it, parse it, drain it through the sieve of hope and charity, add a dash of commiseration and, in an effort to dispel it, we extract some small kernel of mitigating virtue from a virulent harvest of barbarism and pain. After all, we are Americans --- conditioned to sift through the rubble, as we weep, in search of feel-good answers.

The odious attack on the United States by Islamic terrorists is a case in point. Well-meaning apologists and the body politic insist that we must distinguish between terrorism perpetrated by fanatic groups and Islam --- "a kind and merciful religion."

Perhaps we need to redefine fanaticism and terrorism, two inseparable and reciprocal components of the same dynamic process --- the suppression, through violence and intimidation, of free thought, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Only the religion of Islam could supply the motivation and stimulus for the countless acts of murderous aggression the United States has endured, at home and abroad. It would be naive to imagine that people who willingly blow themselves up in a Tel Aviv disco filled with youths or crash airplanes at the loss of their lives and the lives of others do so for some exalted humanitarian cause. The courage comes solely from a doctrine unique to Islam's stated mission of proselytism by force and extortion.

More than 100 verses in the Koran advocate the use of violence to spread Islam. Allah commands Muslims to "take not the Jews and Christians as friends Slay the idolaters (non-Muslims) wherever ye find them Fight against such as believe not in Allah." Though most Muslims would shrink from obeying such commands, this is official, statutory, unexpurgated Islam and Islam cannot change without confessing that Muhammad was a false prophet and a murderer.

The only path to Islam's paradise is to forfeit one's life in jihad, or holy war. Surely, suicide, or self-murder, is forbidden. But, by some aberrant twist of logic, to sacrifice one's life --- holy martyrdom --- in the purging of infidels will yield supreme rewards. Far from being transcendental gifts of pure mind and spirit, what jihad offers in the hereafter is a cornucopia of ceaseless erotic delights. The martyr is promised a palace of pearls composed on 70 mansions inside of which stand 70 houses, each equipped with a bed on which are spread 70 sheets and on each sheet â¤| a beautiful virgin to be ravished to one heart's content.

Martyrs-in-waiting are also persuaded that they will possess the appetite and virility of 100 men for food and sex. This is the fantastic chimera that is fed to Muslim boys from earliest childhood. This motivation instills the reckless courage and will to train for and execute terrorist attacks in which they immolate themselves by bringing death and destruction to the "enemies of Allah." We now know that several of the hijackers granted themselves a foretaste of carnal heaven on the eve of the September 11 assault.

The strike against America was a strike for Allah against his cardinal foe. Palestinians danced exultantly in the streets to celebrate the rape of "the Great Satan." So did Iraqis in the streets of Baghdad and Pakistanis on dusty open roads. The scene was repeated in parts of Africa and Asia. "Allah is great," they roared over and over, hatred eclipsing piety. One day before the tragic events of September 11, CNN showed file footage of third-grade pupils in a West Bank school chanting "death to Israel." Only unremitting indoctrination makes possible such astounding scenes. Only uncritical faith in Islam makes possible the horror their teachers preach and later celebrate.

Although people of good will recoil from blaming a major world religion for the crimes perpetrated in its name, we must ask ourselves whether we can afford such romanticism.

Terrorists obey Muhammad, the Koran, Allah and Islam. Although nominal Muslims reject the injunction, all Islamic scholars agree that it is the religious imperative of every Muslim to spread Islam by any means possible.

While it is true that most Muslims are nonviolent and oppose terrorism, we need to face some simple facts. The religion they follow was founded on violence. From its earliest beginnings, it was spread with the sword. It is by torture, enslavement and slaughter that millions of Sudanese are forced to embrace Islam. Islam is the driving force behind the murderous riots against Christians in Egypt, Indonesia, Nigeria and Pakistan. It is the enforcement of Islamic dogma that inspires the Taliban to deny all civil rights to those under its control and to punish with death any statement of individualism.

And what else but Islam unites the otherwise polarized Arab world in its rabid and unappeasable hatred against Israel? Does anyone believe that the "legitimate liberation of occupied lands" does not imply the obliteration of Israel and the wholesale slaughter of Jews?

We have reached a defining moment when truth must triumph over myth and sentimentality. The terrorists who attacked America and continue to terrorize Israel are not fanatics, per se. They are part of an obstinate, intransigent Muslim fringe, crazed zealots who narrowly and with unflinching fervor, obey the spirit and the letter of their faith. It is their hallucinatory and apocalyptic rendering of Islam that makes them dangerous --- not Islam itself.

This insight could bring forbearance for Muslims of all nationalities who are tragically mired in an uncompromising doctrine. It would also help if Muslims everywhere loudly, forcefully and unequivocally condemned the dastardly acts of their co-religionists. Alas, such strident cry of revulsion is yet to be heard.

Perhaps the evil that men do is NOT interred with their bones. It lies in wait.

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