RUTHFULLY YOURS

About a year ago, I posted an Arabic language poem titled “Tears at the Heart of the Holocaust” on my website, ArabsForIsrael.com. The poem expressed its Arab author’s love for the Jewish people and his mourning over what happened to them in the Holocaust. The brave poet, Mr. Alaa Alsaegh, is an immigrant to the US from Iraq, who now lives in Missouri. Such poems did not sit well with the Muslim community, which caused Mr. Alsaegh to be alienated from it. He received threats because of his support for the Jewish people, was called an infidel and a traitor to Islam, but he continued with his writing of poems and did not take the threats too seriously.

Mr. Alsaegh, as well as Muslim critics and former Muslims who are accused of apostasy, are living under threats, but, lo and behold, if we dare to speak about our fears, we are immediately silenced and accused of being Islamophobes. The mainstream media insist that there is no need to fear Sharia or its enforcers in America and that we are exaggerating our plight from Islam. We are told that what happens in the Arab streets can never happen in the streets of America.

Tell that to Alsaegh, after the unthinkable happened to him, when on August 14, 2011 and in broad daylight and heavy traffic, he was viciously attacked on the streets of St. Louis, Missouri. According to Mr. Alsaegh, as he was driving at 10:30 in the morning on Compton St. near Park Ave., a small white car cut him off and hit his car, while another car stopped behind him. The occupants of the cars, some of whom wore security guard-type uniforms, quickly entered Alsaegh’s car, pointing a gun at him. They pushed his upper body down against the steering wheel, stabbed him and pulled off his shirt to expose his back. Then, with a knife, they carved the Star of David on his back while laughing as they recited his pro-Jewish poem. Mr. Alsaegh believes that the attackers could be Somalis, but he was not sure. After the attackers fled the scene, Mr. Alsaegh was surrounded by witnesses to the crime and was taken to the hospital. The photo representing this story was taken at the hospital.

After I learned of the attack on Mr. Alsaegh, I did not want to rush to judgment and waited until he told me that the FBI concluded that this was a hate crime. I believe that my article on this incident is the first to be reported in the media. This incident has been totally ignored by the mainstream media.

Why is it that attacks perpetrated by Muslims against Muslim infidels or honor crimes are ignored? Crimes done by Muslims against other Muslims who are considered apostates should alert the American public of what is coming to American streets if Muslims start increasing in numbers. The dirty little secret of Islamic hate and intolerance is clear from this story, and no one in the media cares to expose it and alert the American public.

This story strikes at the heart of what the American media establishment is trying to advocate when it comes to Islam — that it is somehow a religion of peace and that those who criticize jihad and Islamic Jew-hatred are “Islamophobes.”

Are we going to call Mr. Alsaegh and those of us who have had similar threats “Islamophobes“?  Are American media outlets covering up Islamic atrocities not only in the Middle East, but also in America? We former Muslims are putting our lives on the line to tell America that we are all in danger from the Islamic doctrines of jihad and Sharia, but few are listening, and our own media and politicians are calling us Islamophobes. Is that the America I love?

Mr. Alsaegh is now scared to death and wants to move away to another state where he can live and write anonymously. He is now left with the hospital emergency room bill to take care of.

I have been personally attacked recently by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and was listed by the government of Iran, together with others, as a threat. Such threats should never be taken lightly.

As to those who defend Sharia as “nothing to be scared of,” I say, welcome to Sharia vigilante street justice in the streets of America.