Islamic fundamentalists, again

By Paul Miller

They wanted to kill 5000 innocent men, woman and children and in their disturbing view of the world only succeeded in murdering approximately 300 civilians. Azam Amir Kasab, 21, from Pakistan, the only terrorist to survive, told India police, these attacks were planned six months ago and were intended to kill 5,000 people. This poor excuse for a human being told authorities "I did right" in referring to the rampage of death he and his terror colleagues committed.

I'm of course talking about the horrific events that began Wednesday evening in Mumbai, India and ended three days later. Ten heavily armed Islamic-fundamentalists went on a killing spree, determined to murder as many people as they could beginning with a local train station. The eventual goal was to attack the Taj Mahal and Oberoi Hotels as well as the Chabad House. By targeting "whites" at the hotels they believed this was the best method to determine who were American and British citizens. Obviously the Chabad House being the local Jewish community center, was the best location to target Israeli tourists and the small local Jewish community. Their goal was to murder as many people as they could or in the words of the only terrorist to be captured, "until our last breath."

While American, British and Israeli security officials arrive in India to assist the government in assessing the carnage, reports are coming out that the Jewish victims were tortured before they were executed.

Why?

The answer is hate. Over the next few weeks the media will report the growing tensions between India and Pakistan, we will hear about the conflict regarding Kashmir as well as the looming dangers of two nuclear powers at such great odds. All will be relevant, but they don't address the root cause.

We will also hear President Bush say America stands with India and he will remind the world of the dangers we all face from Islamic-extremism. He will be right and I am confident he will continue to keep America safe as has successfully done so since 9/11. President-elect Obama will also reiterate our stance with the people of India. What he won't do is mention the threat of Islamic-terrorism. He will generalize and use the word "extremism," but will never mention the word "Islam."

Former Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, once said, "the lesson of the Holocaust is that if someone says he wants to annihilate you, believe him." The West has been hearing threats on this level from Islamic-fundamentalists for decades, yet we some how don't believe them.

After New York, Washington, Pennsylvania, Madrid, London, Baghdad, Beirut, Israel, Africa, Mumbai, and countless other parts of the world that has suffered these attacks . . . when does the world begin to believe them?

When it's too late.

Paul Miller is a writer; consultant and activist dedicated to issues concerning Israel, limited government and free market ideas. You can read his opinions at pauliespoint.blogspot.com.