As the publisher of OnePeterFive, I make the editorial decisions on which topics to cover to further our vision of Catholic restoration. When we launched on August 1st, I intended to run a brief series educational pieces on Islam after some initial collaboration with Andrew Bieszad. I soon questioned this choice, however, finding myself concerned about taking a confrontational position on this most delicate of interfaith issues – not because I thought it untrue or discordant with an authentic Catholic understanding of Islam, but rather because I feared that wading into controversial waters too soon could threaten to overshadow the positive approach and tone we had set about establishing with this initiative.
The events of the past month, however, have led faithful Catholics to look for answers. Answers that were hard to find. Answers that could help them explain the barbarism and bloodshed perpetrated against their brothers and sisters in Christ in the name of a religion which not only permits such evil in its foundational texts, but which is purported to worship the same merciful God (a God who forbids such things!) that we Catholics do. The need felt increasingly urgent as the situation developed, and I made the decision to go ahead and publish. We handled the topic with candor and orthodoxy, eschewing the false ecumenical gloss of acceptance and even respect shown toward a religion that wants to see us subjugated — and eventually eradicated — from the face of the Earth.
Today, I am reaffirmed again in this decision. There is word that an IS-sponsored terror threat against the Southern US Border is imminent.
Islamic terrorist groups are operating in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez and planning to attack the United States with car bombs or other vehicle born improvised explosive devices (VBIED). High-level federal law enforcement, intelligence and other sources have confirmed to Judicial Watch that a warning bulletin for an imminent terrorist attack on the border has been issued. Agents across a number of Homeland Security, Justice and Defense agencies have all been placed on alert and instructed to aggressively work all possible leads and sources concerning this imminent terrorist threat.
Specifically, Judicial Watch sources reveal that the militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) is confirmed to now be operating in Juarez, a famously crime-infested narcotics hotbed situated across from El Paso, Texas. Violent crimes are so rampant in Juarez that the U.S. State Department has issued a number of travel warnings for anyone planning to go there. The last one was issued just a few days ago.
Intelligence officials have picked up radio talk and chatter indicating that the terrorist groups are going to “carry out an attack on the border,” according to one JW source. “It’s coming very soon,” according to this high-level source, who clearly identified the groups planning the plots as “ISIS and Al Qaeda.” An attack is so imminent that the commanding general at Ft. Bliss, the U.S. Army post in El Paso, is being briefed, another source confirms. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not respond to multiple inquiries from Judicial Watch, both telephonic and in writing, about this information.
The disturbing inside intelligence comes on the heels of news reports revealing that U.S. intelligence has picked up increased chatter among Islamist terror networks approaching the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. While these terrorists reportedly plan their attack just outside the U.S., President Obama admits that “we don’t have a strategy yet” to combat ISIS.
Some have brought to my attention the fact that approved Catholic prophecy indicates a coming existential conflict between the post-Christian West and the forces of Islam. I have begun my own study of this topic to see what there is to learn, and whether there is information in these prophecies that should be brought to the attention of our readers.
On a more practical level, I recently had a conversation with someone with a military background and a long career in law enforcement. I asked him a question I have been wondering for some time:
“What is in place to prevent the kind of terrorist attacks that Israel has suffered for many years — car bombings, bus bombings, random acts of violence — from happening here?”
The man looked at me for a long moment in silence before responding, “Absolutely nothing.”
We Americans have been comfortable in our sense of security for a very long time. And yet, all of us remember the way we felt on September 11th, 2001. The devastation. The shock. The “something like this can’t happen here” feeling.
But it can. It has. And it will. Maybe not today. Maybe not this week. Maybe, if we’re lucky, not out of Ciudad Juarez, at least not right away.
But we’ve chosen a self-destructive path. A path which many Catholics have supported and endorsed. We’ve convinced ourselves that we can have open borders and unrestricted immigration and remain safe. We’ve chosen to apply our own ideas of Islam to a religion that has long since shown us that it denies the divinity of our Christ and wants to see us subjugated to its cruel laws, converted, or dead. It is offering to young men across the world something to believe in. Something to be passionate about. Something that caters to their most base desires while rallying them with zealous fervor. Something that they will fight and kill and torture and rape and die for.
While we argue amongst ourselves about whether these are the things that Islam really teaches, the barbarians are at the gates, claiming to be its adherents. They will not be appeased until we are destroyed, or they are.
Pray that we have the wisdom to discern the proper course of action, and the strength to do it.
