Bush Was Right: They Do Hate Our Freedoms



– David Cross, “It’s Not Funny”


We can say this, at least, for social justice warriors: they do not commit mass shootings when triggered by microaggressions. But homophobic Islamists do.

Despite what anyone, even the sainted Ron Paul, might suggest, Omar Mateen’s shooting rampage in a gay nightclub in Orlando is not another example of blowback due to American foreign policy. Mateen could have gone anywhere large numbers of people congregate to carry out his planned massacre. But he chose to kill homosexuals because he was taught to hate them (and possibly himself, if recent reports are accurate) by Islamic teachings, not because the homosexual community had supported Israel or propped up corrupt and totalitarian Middle Eastern regimes. Mateen hated those who would dare to live free, in a manner not in keeping with his own repressed value system, and took out his rage against those who expressed themselves in way protected by Western political and judicial systems.

The above quote is one of countless responses roundly mocking an excerpt from American President George W. Bush’s speech to the joint session of Congress held a week following the 9/11 attacks:

“Americans are asking ‘Why do they hate us?’


bush bin ladenWhile Cross is correct that bin Laden orchestrated the 9/11 attacks due, in part, to the repression (both real and imagined) caused by American foreign policy, Cross omits a great deal of what bin Laden “fucking said!” Allow me to fill in the blanks, straight from the horse’s mouth.

From Osama bin Laden’s “Letter to the American People”:

“The American Government and press still refuses to answer the question: Why did they attack us in New York and Washington?…What are we calling you to, and what do we want from you?

The first thing that we are calling you to is Islam… of complete submission to His Laws; and of the discarding of all the opinions, orders, theories and religions which contradict with the religion He sent down to His Prophet Muhammad… It is the religion of Jihad in the way of Allah so that Allah’s Word and religion reign Supreme…

The second thing we call you to, is to stop your oppression, lies, immorality and debauchery that has spread among you… We call you to be a people of manners, principles, honour, and purity; to reject the immoral acts of fornication, homosexuality, intoxicants, gambling’s, and trading with interest








(our emphasis)

There’s a lot more that can be added to this list. Brevity, among other things, was not one of bin Laden’s virtues. While much of bin Laden’s screed for why he hates America centers around anything that can fit under the umbrella term “American imperialism,” he makes it clear that much contempt for America is rooted in a perceived permissiveness of the American culture for social behavior. America’s civil liberties, particularly those enshrined in the First Amendment, were an affront to bin Laden’s interpretation of Islam, and remain an affront to Islamic terrorists to this day. What we consider freedom, Islamists view as decadence and debauchery, and equate it with an unholiness that Allah demands be cleansed from the Earth. Indeed, he chastises America for the objectification of women, while women are treated far more dignified in the West than in the Islamic world. The illogic underlying this ideology is important to note. Unfortunately for Americans and other Western countries that do not punish its citizens for libertine behavior, there are plenty of Omar Mateens in the world who try to carry out Allah’s will.

It does not matter if Omar Mateen may have been gay himself. His horrific act was motivated by homophobia, and his homophobia had its foundation in Islamic teachings. Mateen identified himself as a supporter of and fighter for ISIS, an Islamic terrorist organization which counts among its many human rights violations homosexual genocide, acts ISIS is disgustingly prolific at.

ISIS members executing homosexuals is not some cruel pastime dreamed up by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the ISIS leader who may possibly have been killed by an airstrike, but a punishment prescribed by the Quran.  Indeed, an Islamic imam in Orlando had this to say in 2013:


The Washington Post reports the 10 countries where homosexuality is a capital offense. 9 of those 10 are predominantly Muslim countries, and the tenth, Nigeria, is almost evenly split between Muslims and Christians.

Here is a list of countries where homosexuality is illegal (the list is comprised of 73 countries, but would number 77 if those countries were legally recognized. They include two large provinces of Indonesia, the Cook Islands, territory controlled by ISIS, and Gaza/Palestine). Most of these are either countries that have a Muslim theocracy, predominant population of Muslims, and/or significant portions of the populace are Muslim.

For any libertarians out there worried admitting as much will negatively affect their lifetime Libertarian Purity Test score, you are allowed to agree with Bush, Obama, or Sanders if they are correct about something. If somebody says 100 things, and 99 of them turn out to be false, it doesn’t invalidate the one thing they say that is true. Even a broken clock is accurate twice a day.

The fact is our freedoms are under constant assault, either by members of our own government and their statist enablers, and by adherents to an ideology that construe it as justification for their own violent ends. Our condemnation of Islamism is not a condemnation of Muslims, just like our condemnation of the State is not a condemnation of the vast majority of our fellow human beings who practice statism religiously. The social justice left, according to its principle of intersectionality, believe that Islam is an underdog. This is a falsity. Muslims have experienced much undue discrimination, but the ideology of Islamism has rarely ever been an underdog, and indeed, has usually been the oppressor. We libertarians cherish our freedom and must guard it jealously. Protecting it requires acknowledging who is attacking it, and why, as well as giving credit where credit is due to those who acknowledge when it is under attack, and why.

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