Shut Down a Mosque, Stop Terror—Good Idea?

Trump_on_IslamYesterday, during an interview with Stuart Varney on the Fox Business Network, Presidential candidate Donald Trump affirmed that he would have no problem shutting down a mosque that promoted terror, especially when it came to fighting for ISIS.

Needless to say, his affirmation has drawn all kinds of criticism from those known to have already dirtied their hands promoting terror themselves—CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) being a primary example.

Trump’s response came on the heels of a question about his own personal safety and his recent request for Secret Service protection, along with an observation made by Varney concerning Great Britain and its terrorism conundrum, whereby several mosque members have been traveling to the Middle East to fight for ISIS—and then returning home!

Varney noted that a couple of solutions that British authorities have proposed to stem the stream of mosque support for ISIS is to (1) withdraw passports from those running back and forth to the Middle East and (2) “closing some mosques.”

That is when Varney asked Trump, “Would you do the same thing in America?”

Trumps responded with, “I would do that. Absolutely.  I think it’s great.  I know they have a lot proposals over there.  If you go out; if you go fight for ISIS, you can’t come back.”

Varney then asked, “Can you do it?  I mean, we do have religious liberty.”

Trump replied with, “Why can’t you do it?”

He then admitted that he had not heard about the closing of the mosques, but then said “it depends.  If the mosque is, you know, loaded for bear, I don’t know.  You’re going to have to certainly look at it.  But, I can tell you one thing.  If somebody goes over and they want to fight for ISIS, they wouldn’t be coming back.  And in this country, that’s been proposed for two years now and, as usual, our politicians can’t get together on it.”

According to CAIR spokesperson Robert McCaw, Trump’s comments are “incompatible with the CAIRConstitution.”  Really?  Where in the Constitution does it say that in order to be compatible with it, no one is allowed to investigate any organization, religious or otherwise, who has ties to terrorism?

The fact of the matter is, it does not say any such thing, and it is law enforcement’s responsibility to protect the country’s citizens by using all means necessary to look into persons and/or groups suspicious of illegal activities that would prevent it from carrying that responsibility.

McCaw continued, “The government should not be in the business of deciding what is acceptable free speech or religious belief.”

Apparently Mr. McCaw has forgotten the number of times his organization, CAIR, has called upon the Justice Department to investigate so-called instances of “hate speech” against Muslims.  Does CAIR really believe that what is good for the goose is not good for the gander?

Moreover, when an imam, sheikh, or mullah stands before his congregation and breathes his infamous fiery hatred of America, incites the mosques patrons to fight in the cause of Allah in a manner too many of us have become all too familiar, and then provides the ways and means to carry out an act of terror, either at home or abroad, then it is time for the Muslim “extremist” and his mosque to be shut down.  Period.  End of story.

Ibrahim HooperIbrahim “Dougie” Hooper, another CAIR loudmouth, chimed in with these infinite words of wisdom.  “It is truly outrageous that the leading Republican presidential candidate would announce openly that he would violate the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by closing down religious institutions.”

No, “Dougie,” it is not “truly outrageous” what Trump said.  What is “truly outrageous” are two airliners, piloted by Muslim “radicals,” some of whom attended American mosques just prior to crashing them into the World Trade Center and killing nearly 3,000 people.

What is “truly outrageous” are the hundreds, if not thousands, of Christians being beheaded by your Muslim brethren, almost on a daily basis, and you standing by and doing nothing to stop it.

What is “truly outrageous” are your comments that, “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,” while you abuse the Constitution’s intent in your striving to achieve that very goal.

“Dougie,” concluded, “I hope this finally prompts people to speak out against this off-the-rails Islamophobia that we are seeing from the right wing of the American political sector.”

Let’s see, you’re the one who wants a safe harbor for those wanting to plot and murder Americans, even after the organization you represent (CAIR) was implicated in the indictment and conviction of another Muslim Brotherhood front group (the Holy Land Foundation), which supplied funding to Hamas in its war against Israel, and the best you can come up with is a contrived buzzword that you hope will shut down discussion about your illegal activities and the support thereof?

Come now, “Dougie,” surely you can do better than that after all these years of mounting evidence, which shows you’re nothing more than a subversive and traitor to this country, along with the rest of your CAIR cronies.

Last, but not least, CAIR’s National Director, Nihad Awad, decided to get in on the feeding frenzy Nihad Awadyesterday, when he tweeted on Twitter, “Then, it might be a good idea to learn about the #constitution and #ReligiousLiberty before shooting from the lip.”

Of course, this comes from a guy who belongs to an organization intent on undermining the Constitution and destroying the country.

Please note the words from the Muslim Brotherhood Explanatory Memo written back in 1991, or just three years before CAIR, a front group for the Muslim Brotherhood was transformed from the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP) of which Nihad Awad was an officer.

The Ikhwan [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 God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.

Awad’s predecessor at CAIR, Omar Ahwad, shared these sentiments with fellow Muslims prior to moving on with his dealings at CAIR, “Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant.  The Quran should be the highest authority in America.”

Clearly, Nihad Awad does not give a flip about the Constitution, except to use and abuse it, like “Dougie” Hooper above, to further the means of Islam and the goals of the Muslim Brotherhood, of which he is a committed member.

So, would it be a good idea to revoke the passport of known conspirators streaming out of American Muslim mosques to go and fight for ISIS?  Absolutely!  Would it be a good idea to case and profile American Muslim mosques and their leaders to make sure they are not promoting terror against the United States?  Without a doubt!

Although Donald Trump seems, at times, to be more full of himself than substantive ideas to help correct the wayward ship called America, he is spot-on in his comments about ISIS, Muslim mosques, and the terrorists they are breeding.

Failure to act prudently will be a contributing factor to the collapse of the country, if someone does not stand up, take charge, and do what’s right to shut down certain Islamic edifices which promulgate ideas that run counter to the best interests of the United States.  Our Founding Fathers would applaud such a stance.

About the Author

Paul Derengowski, Ph.D.
Founder of the Christian Apologetics Project PhD, Theology with Dogmatics, North-West University (2018); MA Apologetics with Honors, BIOLA University (2007); ThM, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (2003); MDiv, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (2000); BA Pastoral Ministry & Bible, Baptist Bible College (1992)