It's been nearly sixteen years since that horrific Islamist terror attack in New York City on 9/11 where nearly 3000 Americans were murdered in the name of Allah.  That day that will forever live in infamy and etched into America's psyche.  While the bodies of those killed were still being counted, we recall former President George W. Bush holding a press conference and defensively proclaiming "Islam is a religion of peace" while half a dozen Muslims (among them Nihad Awad, the founder of CAIR, a Muslim Brotherhood front group) stood directly behind him.  Since that fateful day, we have had numerous Islamist attacks (Boston, Orlando, Chattanooga, San Bernardino, Columbus, and countless lesser known attacks) while the number of Muslim immigrants permitted entry onto our shores continues to grow at an accelerated pace.

The proclamation uttered by President Bush is factually false.  Islamic doctrine, Islamic law (Sharia), and the Quran mandate Jihad against non-believers.  The question that needed to be raised then and now is why would a sitting President, who promised to secure our country from within and without, provide cover for those who perpetrated the attack against us?  Furthermore, in a telling moment gone unnoticed by most Americans, why were the representatives of Muslim Brotherhood front groups invited to stand behind him as he uttered that patently false statement?  Nihad Awad, a founder of the Council of American Islamic Relations, was a member of Hamas.  He formed CAIR to be the public relations arm of Hamas in the United States.  His organization, along with dozens more, is named in the Strategic Outline for North America known as an ‘Explanatory Memorandum,’ and was underwritten in 1987 by members of the Muslim Brotherhood.  The manual describes a "civilizational grand jihad" waged against the United States by “eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their own hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions."

While the Muslim Brotherhood established roots here in 1953 during President Eisenhower's term in office, it took them decades to infiltrate all of our institutions at the local, state, and federal level.  Muslim immigration and settlement in the heartland of America threatens the very fabric of our Judeo-Christian society that once required assimilation and placed value upon e pluribus unum (from many one).  Islam, which literally means "submission," requires supremacy status and submission from believers and non-believers alike.  We currently have over 3,000 mosques in the United States.  Traditionally, mosques are not just houses of worship, but command centers where the call to arms goes out.  Mosques in capitals throughout Europe have been raided after Islamic terrorist attacks where, to the surprise of locals, ammunition and weapons have been found.

Instead of declaring Islam to be at war with Western civilization and at odds with our constitutional republic, Islam has been designated a religion, a status undeserved in light of Islam's historical role of conquest.  Instead it should have been designated as a political ideology with a religious component alien to our values of liberty, tolerance, and plurality.  Such an act would have prevented Islam from not only gaining a foothold in the United States, but it would have prevented the many lives lost to Islamic terror and the existential threat we now face from within.  While there are those who will object and cry discrimination, it is our duty and right to discern who is given permission to enter our collective home just as we have a duty to discern who enters our personal home.  All guests are not equal, and those who hold an ideology that seeks our submission should not be given nor deserve a welcome mat.

Americans reserve the right to criticize Islam under the protection of our First Amendment, but as Muslim immigrants have increased in numbers and as their political power continues to grow, we are witnessing an erosion of our liberty in favor of Sharia compliance.  It is becoming increasingly difficult to criticize Islam without being censored and labeled as haters within the pages of major urban newspapers such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times.  Google, Twitter, and Facebook have blocked access and censored those who dare declare the truth about Islam.  They are in fact, enforcing Islamic blasphemy laws which forbids Muslims and non-Muslims alike from criticizing Islam; thus, they are preventing Americans from exercising their free speech rights guaranteed in our Constitution in favor of Islamic Sharia which holds our man-made laws to be subservient.

The election of Donald Trump as president of the United States has yielded hope for the nearly 64 million Americans who voted for him that America would return to the values that once made America great, including controlled immigration, entry only given to those who share our values, controlled borders, sovereignty, smaller government, less regulations, lower taxation, and American exceptionalism.  Instead, nearly nine months after his inauguration, we find ourselves continuing the battle to prevent those who lost the election from overturning the will of the people by seeking his removal from office.

With the aid of the anti-Trump media, Deep State, socialists, communists, the Democratic Party, and the GOP globalist establishment, a soft coup is being conducted against a sitting president.  Our intelligence community is leaking classified information hurtful to our president and American security.  Our State Department run by Rex Tillerson has numerous Islamists who have infiltrated the department and has currently hosted a meeting on August 10 with CAIR.   Our National Security Council is headed by H.R. McMasters, who too has declared Islam to be a religion of peace and is responsible for purging the pro-Israel advocates from the NSC.  Gen. John Kelly with a stellar reputation has been promoted to Chief of Staff, but he too declared Islam to be a religion of peace.  General James Mattis, our new Secretary of Defense, has asserted that Israel is the obstacle to peace in the Middle East.  Robert Mueller, appointed as special counsel in the investigation into Russian hacking of our election, is responsible for erasing any reference to Islamic terror in the training manuals used by the FBI, CIA, and the Pentagon.

Many in President Trump's original cabinet, who were pro-Israel and critical of Islamic doctrine, have been axed in favor of those in the Islamist camp.  The ouster of Steve Bannon, Gen. Michael Flynn, Rich Higgins, Ezra Cohen-Watnick, and Derek Harvey signal a possible return to a pro-Islamic policy agenda similar to the one enacted under Barack Hussein Obama.

Ironically, as we get closer to mark the anniversary of 9/11 and commemorate the many lives of those killed by Islamic terror, Americans are witnessing the erosion of Judeo-Christian values while Islam is taught in our public schools under the guise of cultural enrichment.  The growth of mosques continues unabated and Muslim political PACS such as Jetpac are formed to help elect Muslims to political office.  There is the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America whose primary allegiance is to Islamic law as well as thousands of Muslim advocacy organizations nationwide, and we are witness to the enforcement of Sharia blasphemy laws by a press that is no longer free.  Additionally, there is a resettlement of Muslims in nearly 190 cities throughout the land, Muslim prayer rooms at airports, and the public observance of Muslim holidays as well as Halal compliance in some schools.  CAIR has embedded itself within the far left and recently called for the removal of Confederate Memorials nationwide and for more anti-Trump protests.

The Islamists' continuous sphere of influence continues to grow at the risk to our liberty and all that we hold dear.  Is it a coincidence that the Muslim Brotherhood has embedded itself within our halls of government, media, and financial institutions, taken over our body politic, and made good on its promise to "destroy Western civilization and the miserable house of the unbelievers by their own miserable hand and the hands of the believers?"

Shari Goodman is an educator, political activist, journalist and a red dot in the blue state of California.