House of God, House of War

Picture this scenario: a group of heavily armed Roman Catholics, led by a priest, swarms into St. Joseph's Cathedral in New York. They claim it as a military base. They fire grenades from its windows. They set explosive charges, in order to blow it up and blame the police if they are challenged. They openly proclaim their intent to rule New York, and demand positions in the US government. How would Christians respond?

They would be outraged. The entire city would march against the attackers, Catholics most of all. Christians would hold hands with Jews and atheists in denouncing the attackers and supporting the police.

Now suppose thousands of Christians marched to support the attackers? What if crowds gathered to protect the cathedral from the police? What if condemnation fell onto the government for wanting to end the siege? What if Catholics carried the attackers' photos as icons, and burned the American flag in effigy while throwing stones at the police?

This, of course, is exactly the situation in Najaf, only the religion is Islam. A cleric and his supporters have fortified one of the holiest Muslim sites in Iraq. Crowds carrying his picture continue to march on his behalf, and against the government.

It is clear that a lot of mainstream Muslims agree with the cleric and his henchmen. Peace, in their minds, is to be achieved by turning holy sites into military bases. Those who want to end the attacks are the enemy.

House of God in this case means House of War. This is what it meant on November 20, 1979, when 200 Islamic fighters seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca, with hundreds of pilgrims inside. Some 250 people were killed and 600 wounded in the siege that followed. Many of the pilgrims took up arms on the side of the attackers. Some went to Afghanistan and joined the jihad.

The 1993 attack against the World Trade Center was planned by a respected cleric in a mosque. His moral-religious authority gave him a large following in the neighborhood. Many agreed with his ideals, and did not oppose his anti-American rants. Few in the neighborhood knew of his precise plans. But all were in fact accomplices in the attack. They gave him a base of operations, economic support and a pulpit.

When federal agents recently arrested the imam and a founder of a mosque in Albany for agreeing to launder money to buy an anti-aircraft missile, the leaders of the mosque were outraged--at the possibility of discrimination against Muslims. This must be a mistake, the spokesman said. Mosques are Houses of God.

"The American Muslim community obviously [!] wants to continue to protect our nation from threats both foreign and domestic," said Arsalan Iftikhar, the national legal director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "But we can't do that if the entire Muslim community is cast in a nebulous and suspicious light." He wonders whether the Bush administration is trying to show that it is tough on terrorism. In his mind, a federal investigation of a particular Muslim is an attack against the entire Muslim world. This hinders Muslims from battling terror. Federal prosecutions are really just PR campaigns.

It is long past the time for Americans to admit the truth. The totalitarian radicals have support from mainstream Muslims. Many condemn the investigations into America's enemies rather than assist the investigations. Many think that supporting Islamic fighters financially is not really that bad. Many clerics and thousands of their followers do not oppose the use of mosques as military bases. Many see their religion as compatible with aggressive warfare, even if they do not actually take up arms.

The only way to protect Americans--and, coincidentally, good Iraqis--is to bomb the Najaf mosque into a parking lot, and to announce that any building used for such purposes gets the same treatment. They chose to use their House of God as a House of War. The marching crowds agree. Admit the facts, and act accordingly. Continue aggressive investigations into mosques in America. And let those who will condemn the Americans choose their side openly.

Cartoons by Cox and Forkum. Source for the Albany mosque quotes: E. Hale and D. Leinwand, 'Federal agents raid mosque in Albany; 2 arrested', in USA TODAY, Aug. 5, 2004.