Tom Tancredo Quotes
Our own civilization has lost its way, and this makes us even more vulnerable to Islamist nihilism.
Tancredo, Tom. In Mortal Danger: The Battle for America's Border and Security. WND Books, 2006, p. 157.
This quotation provides a succinct view of most non-Western Muslims on the issue of the definition of “terrorist.” A “mujahid” can be translated from Arabic as “freedom fighter.” To the rest of the world, terrorism is defined by the techniques and behavior of the doer. To many Muslims, it is defined only by the motive. If one is defending land or a cause, he cannot be a terrorist. The only terrorist to a Muslim holding this point of view is a person who engages in these violent methods for no reason. The essential difference is that to most of the world a cause—even a worthy one—does not justify any methodology or cost. To the Islamicist who accepts Al-Jozo’s point of view, there is NO methodology that is immoral, especially if one is fighting for a cause, and no cause is more worthy than the spread and dominance of Islam and the world of God. Therefore, for that cause, there can be no terrorism as there can be no ethical or moral limits.
The column was written in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist murder of hundreds of school children and adults in Russia. The newspaper was the largest Arab newspaper in the world.
The original came from the Hausa language.
While that tended to be so at that time, it has not always been so. For example, the civil war in Sri Lanka where suicide bombing vests were developed pitted Sinhalese Buddhists against Tamil Hindus. The 10 percent Muslim population were the only ones who were peaceful. And the PKK in Turkey—although a Muslim terrorist movement operated in a very strong and modern state.
Thomas Gerard Tancredo is an American politician from Colorado, who represented the state's sixth congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1999 to 2009 as a Republican. He ran for President of the United States during the 2008 election, and was the Constitution Party's unsuccessful nominee for Governor of Colorado in 2010.
