By Zachary West (703) 431-8648 September 27, 2011 The Towers are Still Burning At the First Responders

Memorial dedication ceremony in Purcellville on September 11 Patrick Henry Colleges President Dr. Graham Walker delivered a public address. As a volunteer EMT and proud Purcellville native who just also happens to be Muslim, I was shocked by Walkers words. All of my schooling was in Purcellville. I achieved the rank of Eagle Scout here, lifeguarded, played on rec leagues, rope swings, river floats, and went on many hiking ventures. I graduated from George Mason University and in my senior year converted to Islam. Amongst the greatest joys I found was a pious community, whose faith and practice I could not find elsewhere espousing the same values I had been taught in church. Mr. Walker, you asked the audience what it was these men sought through their heinous crimes. Referring back to their recovered journals, what followed was a description similar to the afterlife that I aspire to. I was disgusted, given that you have voiced the standard rhetoric of all Muslims through the mouths of a few massmurderers. There may have even been a reference to a verse of The Quran. The counterproductive nature of this defamation is apparent. The Paradise and love of God described in their journals was no more a part of their agenda than was the Bible part in the plotting of Anders Behring Breivik, a man charged with killing 87 innocents in Norway who flew the flag of Christianity in the wake of his destruction. You then asserted that these men would wish to have us ruled by Shariah law. It is also known that all 19 hijackers were Western educated. None received a traditional Islamic education from a madrasa (religious school), nor were any versed in knowledge of the Shariah. I resent the use of this sacred language as a label for such maniacal ideologies, because you have trusted the word of a murderous cult so much as to allow them to define the religious doctrine of BILLIONS. Your accusation was an attempt to impose your totalitarian epistemology upon the Shariah. I am no authority, but still, I can affirm that all Muslims believe that living life in accordance to the Shariah is obligatory. Your confusion lies in your inability to distinguish between moral/religious and political conscience in Islam. The Shariah is no more a threat to The United States Constitution than is rabbinic (Jewish) or canonical (Catholic) law. The U.S. Constitution is a negotiated, compromiseagreement over how political rights and protections are to be distributed and adjudicated. My ability to practice the Shariah in present-day America is not hindered the least until you revoke my natural rights in any of the five interests it aims to protect: religion, bodily integrity, progeny, sanity and prosperity. Were this government of ours to threaten any such rights, the Shariah ordains that I migrate somewhere where I can practice my religion without persecution.

So how did we come to a point where not only the distrust of a major world religion is even allowed in the discourse, but the majority of the American public actually voicing a problem with Muslims in this country? Were one to have no knowledge of the value found in the Christian faith, and were only exposed to the media attention it receives, one would believe most Christians to be a rather intolerable bunch. Thank God that the overwhelming majority of the worlds Muslims are taught in their holy book about the value of other faiths and more specifically the love Christians have for God. Part of my religious upbringing emphasized scrupulousness and humility in ones use of words before a God Who hears everything. In your speech, you heralded secular governance as the product of Christian thought. You then congratulated a young lady who you identified as not believing in absolute truth, on her recent enlistment into the army for reasons of vengeance. What uniting principal is this? Certainly it is not patriotism. I firmly believe in our right to defend ourselves, but I have never known vengeance as a praiseworthy attribute in any world religion. And what solace does vengeance give anyone, when it costs the lives of MILLIONS of civilians including women and children? This is very similar to the logic of most violent religious radicals. I say so long as we continue to respond to hate with hate, we cannot even begin molding the young minds of what we all hope to be a more peaceful future. I pray that God have mercy on you and others that think the same way, that I might strive in the footsteps of a far greater, more sorely tried servant, who was driven out of the town of Taif in Arabia for bringing the message of monotheism. As the townspeople threw stones at him, the beloved Prophet Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace, in a mix of blood and tears, pled to his Lord, O God forgive my people, for they know not what they do. In one respect I should thank you, for it was hearing such belligerent rhetoric against Islam that reminded me of a man two millennia ago, may God grant him peace, Jesus, who spoke the same words of peace, proclaiming the unity of God, and was persecuted upon the baseless fear of the mob. It was this that first drew me unto the religion, and by Gods grace, I hope it draws more. Purcellvilles commemoration marked for all of us the brave sacrifice of our civil servants that day. While all of us continue to remember the tragic loss of innocent life in New York, Pennsylvania and the District, I issue a reminder to pray for the MILLIONS of innocents that are still dying as its result. Outside at the ceremony, during the unveiling of the new memorial, as others smiled and clapped, I wept. What have we learned after a decade of nationalistic and proselytistic violence? God sees and knows better than we.