Islam and American Nationhood

Floor Speech

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Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise to to include in the Record the following essay on behalf of Mr. Dave Jervis:

Some of the earliest Islamic migration to America was reportedly sponsored by Henry Ford, who brought workers from Yemen to Detroit in the 1920s to work in his auto plants. This in turn gave rise to a now-very-large Islamic community in Dearborn and other Detroit-area municipalities. Now, 100 years later, the Islamic community there remains an unassimilated population that stands apart from Western ways and tradition, which grew out of Christianity. So, it behooves us to look into the precepts and the practice of Islam in America. for insights.

Islam was founded in what is modern-day Saudi Arabia by a man named Mohammad. He was born in 570 AD in Mecca, where he lived until the year 622, when he and his adherents moved to Medina, where he lived until the time of his death in 632. So, Islam basically began in the early 7th Century, by which time Christianity had spread throughout Europe and North Africa. Mohammad wrote Islam's holy book, the Koran, over the course of his lifetime, essentially in two phases--his early writings in Mecca and his later writings in Medina, all of it in service to Islam's god, named Allah.

The early days in Mecca found him endeavoring to find common ground with Christianity--perhaps to even merge the two faiths. So, his early writings were more positive or friendly. But Christianity could not do what Mohammad wanted (meaning for them to honor and worship Allah), so his later writings became more negative, including 109 to 128 (depending on who's doing the counting) so-called War Verses in the Koran encouraging violence against those who do not submit to Islam, calling them infidels. In fact, the word Islam means submission. One example is the Koran's Suras (Chapters) 2.193 and 8.40, which say to, make war on them [the infidels] until idolatry shall cease and God's religion [Islam] shall reign supreme.

At this point, I should refer you to an excellent book that I've found to offer valuable insights into the many aspects of Islam in both theory and practice. The book is entitled Secrets of the Koran , written by Mr. Don Richardson, a Christian missionary and pastor/scholar who wanted to learn the truth about why America was attacked on 9/11/2001 by Islamic/Muslim combatants. So, he purchased and studied all 7 available English translations of the Koran, and his scholarship is impeccable. You'll find clear explanation and reasoning there and learn that while Christianity spreads by charisma (his word), Islam spreads by conquest. And that unlike Christianity in America, Islam combines and constitutes both religion and government, via what is called Sharia Law, an Islamic legal system that is trying or mediating or arbitrating (primarily family law) Sharia Court cases here in America, entirely outside the U.S. legal system, in conflict with our Rule of Law.

Richardson initially had difficulty reconciling conflicting verses in the Koran, as the war verses are scattered among friendlier conflicting verses. So how is one to determine which conflicting verses take precedence over others? Richardson reveals a primary key to understanding the Koran-- a legal term probably taught to first-year law students-- ABROGATION--which means that when verses in the Koran conflict with each other, the verse written later in time abrogates (meaning that it over-rides or cancels or negates) any conflicting verse written earlier in time. So, the war verses of Mohammad's later writings apparently over-ride or cancel any previous conflicting friendlier verses, whether written in Mecca or Medina. The war verses also gain credibility when we consider that Mohammad basically went rogue in Medina, adopting caravan raiding as his vocation there. Somewhere between the Koran and subsequent Koran interpretations by Islamic authorities (writings called the Sunnah [tradition], which includes Hadith [narratives] and Sirah [journey]), he also learned that lying and other forms of deception are acceptable if they are employed in serving Allah.

Islam has warred against western/Christian-derived thought consistently through the centuries, taking North Africa and most of the Middle East, and launching several European invasions. And, warring against the U.S. from our very beginnings. Early in our history as an east-coast-only nation, sending our trading ships to eastern Asia from our east coast was such a huge effort if done by rounding Cape Horn and crossing the Pacific, that we instead sent our ships a much shorter way--across the Atlantic and onward to the east end of the Mediterranean to meet the overland caravans that brought Asian silks, spices and other products to trade there. But our ships had to pass through the narrow Strait of Gibraltar, where they were spotted and intercepted by Islamic pirates from the Barbary Coast nations of North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and probably also Egypt), pirates who would kill or enslave our crews and steal the ships and their cargoes--maritime caravan-raiding. So, many of America's earliest naval military ships were built to escort our U.S. trading vessels and to fight the Barbary Pirate nations. This was the first U.S. war fought on foreign soil; and it's enshrined in the Marine Corps hymn, which includes the lyrics, From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli, with Tripoli now being the capital of modern-day Libya. Brian Kilmeade of the Fox News Channel has written a book about that war, entitled, Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates . So now you know where we got the term Barbarian. The point to be made here is that Islam has warred against Western thought and Western nations throughout its history; that war continues today, in various forms.

There is much that could be said about various permitted practices within Islam, such as Honor Killings, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and Child Marriage--and other distinctives like a woman's testimony being worth one-half of a man's testimony; or heavenly rewards of endless virgins available to men who die in the cause of Jihad. We could also discuss the David Horowitz Freedom Center's 2016 booklet by Robert Spencer, entitled Subversive Mosques, in which he cites several studies finding that about three-fourths of the Islamic Mosques in America were preaching violence against the USA, which in our legal system may be Sedition. But our interest in this discussion is in Islam as it relates to, or impacts, our Nationhood here in the U.S.

Although Islamic war forces practicing Jihad (meaning the struggle to conquer non-Islamic peoples and lands) were driven back several times in western Europe over the centuries, Islam is now successfully positioned and essentially assured of taking western Europe via what's called demographics, a form of Soft Jihad meaning simply out- populating the native residents of the current Western nations there, all of which have dismally low birth rates while the Muslims have consistently high birth rates. How did that come about? Basically, because Europe had turned away from Christianity as the base on which Western Civilization was built. As millions of Muslims entered Europe, it became clear that the lack of cohesive religious identity made it difficult for the native European host populations to resist cultural onslaught. European elites raised on a steady diet of liberal ideology could not formulate a reason to deny entry to the large influx of migrants; and in many cases, competed to see who could be more accommodating. Those immigrants have shown no interest in assimilating into a culture they believe to be weak and decadent; and the sheer size of the migration has meant that large ethnic ghettos could form to protect the new competing beliefs, reportedly including even no-go zones where even law enforcement dares not enter. Without Christianity (in the words of Dinesh D'Souza) to spiritually animate the other aspects of its cultural identity, Europe has seemed to lose the will to live, abandoning its fate to a new and energetic population that will NOT adopt the European way of life. And America is, to me, on a similar path, though not as far along; and there are still off-ramps to other paths that we in America can take, IF we can find the national will to do so.

Before moving along to discuss that national will to do so, I want to clarify specifically how America could properly address our Islamic immigration crisis within the context of the Christian-derived western thought that has successfully guided our nation to this point. You'll find that the American Christian church-- and I believe also the European practicing church (it hasn't entirely died there)--are following the Christian mandate to minister to the needs of the stranger among us, and there are many such ministries now working in international communities here in the U.S. (one example would be Envision Atlanta). That ongoing Christian hospitality work must continue and expand, in order to show the love of Christ to individual immigrants. But when the influx of illegal immigrants becomes so large that it threatens to overpower the host nation, I believe the Christian is called upon to do two seemingly-contradictory things concurrently--to minister to individual Muslim people, simply because they are people made in the image of God; and to simultaneously support the repelling and return (by military force if necessary) of the great hordes that have been organized and sent to destroy our nation and culture-- the very cultural infrastructure that allows the Christian to minister to individual Muslims. It's one of history's more difficult, yet readily understood, conundrums.

With all that said. now. let's look at the concept of Nationhood and seek to discern how it may apply to alien ideologies like Islam. At the outset, let me also commend to you Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas's April 15, 2026, speech delivered at the University of Texas at Austin, as a wonderful overview of America's founding principles, with emphasis on our Declaration of Independence as the overall framework and guiding principles that we later enshrined in our U.S. Constitution, to implement those founding principles. It is a marvelous overview. But onward now to Nationhood considerations, beginning with a look at how the positive aspects of nationalism evolved out of monarchies and other aristocratic and autocratic governance.

The 1880s were a time of great change. The U.S. was thriving as a self-governing nation with a republican form, while much of the world--primarily Europe in our case--was in upheaval as it transitioned from aristocratic rule by monarchies and other autocratic rule, to self-governance. The influence of Christianity had been displacing the Divine Right of Kings with the Rule of Law, meaning that Monarchs were no longer above the Law, but under it-- they became subject to the Law just like other people (beginning with the Magna Carta in 1215). Within this context, an 1880's European voice emerged to address the definition and meaning of a Nation. That person was French historian Ernst Renan, who postulated five possible foundations for what constitutes a nation--Unity of Religion, Unity of Language, Unity of Race/ Ethnicity, Common Heritage/Lineage, and Geography alone. We can simplify them to Religion, Language. Race, Lineage and Geography.

Renan posited that all of these five foundations matter, and that they combine to uniquely characterize each nation in some mix that depends on the circumstances of place and history. So, borders are not merely arbitrary lines on a map--they mark the edges of civic sovereignty, restraining states and also containing real people with a unique mix of experiences, memories, belief systems. aspirations and norms that are not replicated in that specific mix anywhere else on the earth. So, when Henry Ford unwittingly brought in Islamic Yemenis to work in his early car plants, he was laying the foundation for an Islamic community in the Detroit area that even after a full century of time still remains an unassimilated population with a very different unique mix of Renan's five foundations than what has come to characterize the United States, starting with Renan's first foundation, the Unity of Religion. It is a simple fact of life that Europe is falling to Islam, as have most other previously Christian nations in the Middle East and the Northern half of Africa, with the U.S. now well into the same process. In the absence of a national awakening on the matter, demographics alone will again be sufficient over time to carry Islam to a Soft-Jihad victory here in the U.S., where our birth rates are faIling to mimic Europe's. Europe allowed unfettered Islamic immigration, in part, out of an assumption that Western Civilization would be sufficient to absorb the Muslim settlers, who would adopt European ways and become westernized. That didn't happen there, and it won't happen here, based on the very tenets of Islam. America should forgo the granting of citizenship to populations that cannot or will not assimilate here; and eliminate illegal practices like Shariah Law. One related conclusion by Don Richardson (beginning on page 224 of his book) is a well-reasoned observation that because the Koran demands Islamic control over all civil authority and claims the right to replace any and every Nation's laws with Sharia law, untold millions of Muslims have perjured themselves. either consciously or unconsciously, by taking the U.S. Naturalization Oath of Allegiance to uphold our Constitution, which stands in stark contrast to Islamic law. He urges an expanded or specialized loyalty oath for Muslims, which would require every Muslim applicant for naturalization to declare under oath that he or she sides with the U.S. Constitution and not the Koran nor Sharia Law. And even that proposal does not address the Islamic core principle/doctrine he had identified, of permitted deception when done in the service of Allah.

Muslim activist podcaster Wajahat Ali (a son of Pakistani immigrants) openly ridicules our national naivete in allowing unchecked Islamic immigration. ever since the passage of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which should be re-examined. He gloats that Islam will one day come to dominate the U.S., as it is doing in Europe. And he's right, as things stand now. With that said, though, there are some-- a few--hopeful signs in states like Texas and Florida, which have recognized the inherent hazards of the growing Islamic presence in the U.S. There's also now a government effort to identify interconnected Islamic terrorist-supporting organizations; a recently formed Congressional Sharia Law Caucus; and other emerging efforts being made to address the onslaught of Soft Jihad in America. IF we will remember and honor the first principles of our founding (things like the Rule of Law)--principles that have prospered America and Americans for 250 years--we may yet reduce the magnitude of our Islamic challenge. May God grant us the wisdom and the will to do so.

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