It was finally time for the event to begin. The governor was on the stage, as were representatives from the FBI, DHS, and State Police, as well as Bev Mass, the State’s Attorney for Cook County. The topic was how the state would deal with terrorists. I rolled my eyes when a university professor got up and talked at length about how we should just all love one another, and the terrorists would leave us alone. While I wasn’t for drone strikes in the suburbs, even I knew that a group hug wasn’t going to stop the violence.
The FBI and DHS representatives talked at length about how they were working to keep us safe. Then it was the State Police’s turn. Bev Mass spoke for both the Chicago Police Department and her office. I hadn’t realized the resources they’d committed to this type of problem.
Then they opened it up to questions. A woman in a hijab came to one of the microphones. They had four set up around the arena, and there was a line at each.
“Peace to you all. I’m a law student at Northwestern University, and I’m here to ask you a simple question. It seems we portray Islam and all Muslims as bad, but there are 1.5 billion Muslim followers of Islam, most of whom are not radical. We have over eight million Muslim-Americans, and I don’t see them represented here on this panel. But my question is, how can we fight an ideological war with the weapons and methods outlined here today? How can we end this war? The Jihadist ideology that you talk about is just that, an ideology. How can you ever win this thing if you don’t address it ideologically?” she asked.
I watched as Brook got up and waved for attention. She stepped up to one of the mics. The people on the panel clearly weren’t comfortable. I was sure they were afraid of looking insensitive and possibly saying something politically incorrect. They happily deferred to Brook.
“Excuse me, let me take this. Great question. I’m so glad you’re here, and I’m happy you brought that up because it gives us an opportunity to answer. What I find so amazing is that since the beginning of this discussion, not one person has even mentioned Muslims, let alone suggest that we are for or against Islam. We’re here to talk about how a young woman died here in Chicago, and to discuss the shootings in California and how to make our people safe.
“We’re not here to bash Muslims. You were the only one who brought up the issue about most Muslims, not us. And since you brought it up, allow me to elaborate on the answer. There are 1.5 billion Muslims in the world today. Of course, not all of them are radicals; the majority of them are peaceful people. The radical Muslims are estimated to be between fifteen and twenty-five percent of the total world Muslim population, according to all the intelligence services around the world. That leaves seventy-five percent who are peaceful people.
“But when you talk about fifteen to twenty-five percent of the worldwide Muslim population, you’re talking about 225 to 375 million people. That’s as big as the population of the United States. And all dedicated to the destruction of Western civilization.
“So why should we worry about the radicals? Because it’s the radicals who kill. Because it’s radicals who strangle a young woman who just wanted to meet and have her picture taken with my friend David. It’s the radicals who kill innocents.
“When you go back through history and the lessons we should learn, you find most Germans were peaceful. Yet during World War II, the Nazis drove the agenda, and as a result, 60 million people died. Almost 14 million died in concentration camps, and six million of them were Jews. The peaceful majority of Germans were irrelevant. They did nothing to stop it.
“When you look at Russia, most Russians were peaceful people. Yet the Russians killed 20 million of their own people in that same war and during the purges that preceded it. The peaceful majority were irrelevant again. When you look at China, for example, most Chinese were peaceful as well. Yet the Chinese government still killed 70 million people during their Cultural Revolution. The peaceful majority were irrelevant.
“When you look at Japan before World War II, you find that most Japanese were peaceful. Yet Japan was able to butcher its way across Southeast Asia. They killed 12 million people, mostly with bayonets and shovels. The peaceful majority were irrelevant.
“On 9-11, in the United States, we had 2.3 million Arab Muslims living here. That doesn’t include non-Arab Muslims from different regions of the world like Indonesia, Turkey, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Uzbekistan, Xinjian, Myanmar, and Bangladesh. And some are home grown here in the United States. It took 19 hijackers, 19 radicals, to bring America to its knees as they destroyed the World Trade Center and attacked the Pentagon. They killed nearly three thousand people that day. The peaceful majority were irrelevant that day.
