Crosstalk: July 27, 2016

Yesterday Crosstalk looked at the effect of Islamization in Europe. From that perspective it's easy for some in the U.S. to claim there's nothing for us to be concerned about because the problem is on the other side of the Atlantic. Besides, we have a constitutional republic that would never allow for Shariah law.

Those excuses collapse under the simple reminder of incidents like 9-11, what occurred in Little Rock, Arkansas, Fort Hood, the Boston Marathon bombing, Chattanooga, Tennessee, and the San Bernardino incident.

For discussion regarding Islamization in our nation, Jim welcomed back Soeren Kern. Soeren is a distinguished senior fellow of the Gatestone Institute, a non-partisan, not-for-profit international policy council and think tank dedicated to educating the public about the institutions of democracy and the rule of law, human rights, a free and strong economy, a military capable of ensuring peace at home and in the free world, energy independence and insuring the public stay informed of threats to our individual liberty, sovereignty and free speech. Soeren is also a senior analyst for Transatlantic Relations at the Strategic Studies Group. He specializes in European politics as well as U.S. and European defense and security related issues. He is a regular commentator about European politics and transatlantic relations. He is a dual citizen of the United States and Germany.

There are those like President Obama who claim that Islam has always been part of America's heritage. Soeren believes that such statements are an attempt by political elites across the Western world to 'mainstream' Islam and make it appear that there's nothing inherently unique to Islam compared to any other religious group. However, the earliest mosque in America was founded in North Dakota in 1929 making Islam's history in our nation a very short one.

The population of Muslims in the U.S. is said to be anywhere from 2.5 to 5 million depending upon the source. What's more important to Soeren is where this is going. He cited the Pew Research Foundation that recently published a story about the rise of Islam around the world and it indicated that Islam would be the second largest religion in the U.S. by 2050. This means there would be more Muslims than Jews in America.

The driving force for the advancement of Islam in the U.S. began with Muslims who were college educated. In the last 10-15 years we've seen a migration of Muslims from a lower socio-economic level. Driving this latter fact is the situation in the Middle East but there's also another factor. Within Islam is the concept of Hijra. That involves jihad through migration which was expressed by Mohammed as the duty of every Muslim.

Soeren also noted that the Islamic impact in our education system is part of the broader multi-culturalism movement. This movement believes all cultures are equal therefore we are told we need to understand Islam and one of the ways to do that is to help the younger generations accept Islam as a normal feature of American society.

As the program continues, Soeren discussed the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), House Resolution 569 that attempts to shut down any criticism of Islam, Islam's goal for our judicial system, the Syrian refugees coming to America, the phenomenon of 'Chrislam', ISIS training camps in the U.S. and much more.