When most Westerners, especially the secular ones, think of religion, they think of something they have seen in their own cultures and societies, i.e., Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. And quite naturally, since most of them lack the insight and knowledge to understand Islam properly, they tend to lump it in with the other religions. That is a big mistake. Islam can be properly described as a totalitarian way of life and a highly effective system of conquest, disguised as a religion. Islam is totalitarian, not just in the sense of theocratic and dictatorial regimes, but also in the sense that there is virtually no part of a believer’s life that is not touched or influenced in some manner by it. Virtually everything a Muslim does is influenced or guided by his faith, by Sharia law, or both. In this sense, free will as Westerners and other non-Muslims understand it, is anathema to those inhabiting Dar al-Islam, the “House of Islam.” Likewise, there is no real analog to the Western notion of liberty or freedom. The Arabic word most closely corresponding to “freedom” is typically said to be “hurriya,” but this is false for the term does not correspond to “liberty” or “freedom” in the sense that an American, for example, would understand it. It instead means “freedom” to do as “Allah wills” for that individual. Many traditional religious faiths and systems have laws or codes of law which attach to them. What makes Sharia (Islamic) law unique, however, is that, in theory, it applies not only to Muslims but also to non-Muslims. At least, that is what the Koran, the Hadith, and the Sira command. Non-Muslims or kafirs, also known as infidels, ~ are denied the most basic of human rights under Islamic suzerainty. They are most often akin to slaves, serfs, or supplicants, and even those non-Muslim dhimmis who serve a useful purpose to the sultan or caliph and survive on that basis, are still treated with inhuman brutality and can be beaten or slain at the whim of any Muslim male. Most Westerners are familiar with the history of slavery, but how many know that Muslims have been the greatest slavers in history? Which is to say, the most prolific takers, buyers, and sellers of slaves in history. Even today, in many parts of the Islamic world, the Arabic word for slave, “Abd,” is synonymous with the slang or informal word for a black man. Although the Muslims took many millions of black Africans as slaves, they likewise took many millions of Europeans and other peoples as slaves from temperate climates further north, venturing as far north as Ireland and Iceland on slave-taking raids. As some of you may know, the very first war fought by the United States as an independent nation was the Barbary War of 1801-1805 (with a brief flare-up in 1815), fought against Islamic raiders and pirates off the coast of North Africa. These nautical jihadists had been seizing American shipping and holding the passengers and cargo for ransom. President Thomas Jefferson grew tired of their demands and sent the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps to Tripoli to teach them a lesson. Various Islamic potentates, rulers, and warlords have infamously slain infidels by the multitudes down through the centuries. According to the work of historians and political scientists who have studied such phenomena, the greatest or largest single genocide in human history was committed by the Islamic Mughal Empire in what is now the Indian sub-continent over years in the 15th century. During that time, an estimated 270 million Hindus and other non-Muslims were put to the sword. So many were slain that the streets ran with blood and giant pyramids of human skulls were erected by the soldiers of Allah. Of course, many other empires and nations have committed acts of genocide, but such wanton bloodletting is impressive even by the standards of the worst tyrants of the 20th century, who had modern industrial warfare and weapons at their disposal but did not manage to even approach the totals of the Mughal Empire. Historians consider the Armenian genocide (1915-1921) to be the first “modern” genocide since it was the first such atrocity that was recorded by still and motion-picture photography. The Sunni Muslim Ottoman Empire in what is now modern-day Turkey was responsible for it and even today, under the government of Recep Erdogan, the president of Turkey, it is still a crime to speak or write of the extermination of the Armenians and Greeks, most of whom were Christians. Anyone who has seen the haunting photos of young girls, Christian virgins, crucified by their captors and slowly dying in the hot sun in the desert will never forget them. These basic historical facts about Islam used to be widely known and taught across the West, but they have been politely airbrushed out of our history in recent decades, and now few people know of them …. or the danger presented by the soldiers of Allah.