U.S. immorality fuels terrorism of radical Muslims, experts say

Jennifer Brown

Kiera Berman, 5, says a prayer at The Memorial Project, two large marble sculptures in Sandy Hook, N.J., in memory of those who died in the attack on the World Trade Center. Kiera was among those at a day care center at the trade center who were evacuated after the terrorists struck Sept. 11, 2001. Some Southern Baptist pastors are citing widespread immorality in the United States as a key reason for the motivation behind Islamic terrorist attacks.

WASHINGTON (BP) - Widespread immorality in the United States could be a key reason for Islamic terrorists' acts of violence against Americans, according to a government commission, a scholar and a Southern Baptist pastor.

The 9/11 Commission Report and Power, Terror, Peace, and War, a new book by Walter Russell Mead, have noted that radical Islamists such as Osama Bin Ladin view the United States as the central player in a "war against God." The only way to fight against America and uphold Islamic moral standards is to kill Americans, they say.

Coinciding with the release of the 9/11 Commission Report and Mead's book was a sermon series in late 2004 by Jim Henry, pastor of First Baptist Church in Orlando, Fla., and former president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Fueling the enemy

Careful not to justify in any way their attacks on innocents, Henry said it is clear that an increase in decadence has brought about the recent onslaught of Islamic terrorist attacks.

"[L]et's acknowledge that America's increasing decadence is giving aid and comfort to the enemy," Henry said. "When we tolerate trash on television, permit pornography to invade our homes on the Internet and allow babies to be killed at the point of birth, we are inflaming radical Islam."

Bin Ladin and his followers believe American immorality to be so severe that the only remedy is to kill Americans whenever possible, the 9/11 Commission concluded.

Polls taken in predominately Muslim countries in 2002-03 confirm that many Middle Eastern Muslims share Bin Ladin's view of the United States. In Egypt, the recipient of more U.S. aid for the past 20 years than any other Muslim country, only 15 percent of the population has a favorable opinion of the United States; in Saudi Arabia, it's 12 percent; and Indonesia, 15 percent.

Such a low opinion of America in Muslim nations, according to Mead, a senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations, is precipitated largely by the perception that "the West has lost touch with its spiritual roots, that we have given our lives over to dissipation and an amoral search for pleasure that we ruthlessly neglect the unfortunate in poorer countries and that the exploitation of women continues under the mask of a philosophy of personal liberation."

The extent of anti-American sentiment in the Muslim world was demonstrated in early January when an Egyptian weekly magazine reported that the tsunami that struck countries surrounding the Indian Ocean Dec. 26 "was possibly" caused by an Indian nuclear experiment in which "Israeli and American nuclear experts participated."

In order to combat negative perceptions of the United States and the consequent terrorism, "the U.S. government must define what the message is, what it stands for," the 9/11 Commission recommended. "We should offer an example of moral leadership in the world ..."

Noting that Muslim nations develop their perception of America largely from satellite television and radio, the commission continued, "If the United States does not act aggressively to define itself in the Islamic world, the extremists will gladly do the job for us."

Henry agreed, citing the responsibility of the church to lead a return to biblical morality in America.

"[R]eversing American decadence [is] an urgent priority, not just for Christians, but for all Americans," the Florida pastor said.

"If our cultural rot continues unabated, a Talabanized West may no longer be a joke, but a grim reality."