In Australia a group of men are on trial for terrorism activities. According to a news article, the youngest member of an alleged terror group hand-wrote a will at the age of 19 and asked his "Muslim brothers" to fight jihad if the government tried to interfere with it, the Supreme Court was told yesterday. Prosecutor Richard Maidment took the jury through materials found in the terrorists' possessions. They are:

1. Videos of beheadings by terrorists.
2. Handbooks on how to make bombs.
3. Strategies for setting up an active terror cell.
4. Lists of the joys awaiting Islamic martyrs in paradise.

"Mr Maidment said some of the group's Islamic-library material argued that while suicide was not permitted in Islam, martyrdom was. It was promised that martyrs would have all their sins forgiven from the moment the first drop of their blood was spilled, would speed across the bridge over hell-fire to heaven and would be wed to 72 virgins in paradise." Seventy-two virgins!? I am currently reading Sam Harris's book The End Of Faith. In page 32, he wrote:

Most people in positions of leadership in our country will say that there is no direct link between the Muslim faith and "terrorism". It is clear, however, that Musims hate the West in the very terms of their faith and that the Koran mandates such hatred. It is widely claimed by 'moderate' Muslims that the Koran mandates nothing of the kind and that Islam is a 'religion of peace'. But one need only read the Koran itself to see that this is untrue:

Prophet, make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites and deal rigorously with them. Hell shall be their home: an evil fate. (Koran 9:73) Believers, make war on the infidels who dwell around you. Deal firmly with them. Know that God is with the righteous. (Koran 9:123)

Religious muslims cannot help but disdain a culture that, to the degree that it is secular, is a culture of infidels; to the degree that it is religious, our culture is the product of a partial revelation (that of Christians and Jews), inferior in every respect to the revelation of Islam. The reality that the West currently enjoys far more wealth and temporal power than any nation under Islam is viewed by devout Muslims as a diabolical perversity, and this situation will always stand as an open invitation for jihad...Insofar as a person believes that Islam constitutes the only viable path to God and that the Koran enunciates it perfectly -- he will feel contempt for any man or woman who doubts the truth of his beliefs. What is more, he will feel that the eternal happiness of his children is put in peril by the mere presence of such unbelievers in the world.

PERSONAL COMMENT I am a migrant. My parents brought us to Australia for a more hopeful future, away from poverty. I am grateful for Australia and its people to welcome us and allow us to become one of them. People migrate to wealthier countries mainly to improve the quality of their lives. Wealthier countries are where they are today because their culture and their beliefs have managed to shape the political and economic landscape of their country that is conducive to the lifestyle you seek. Before thinking ill of the beliefs and the people of your newly-adopted country, you must at least ask yourself this: If your existing set of beliefs were so good then why did your people fail to build a country where you would want to live in? Could it be that your beliefs might have a tendency to choke any progress being made in education, science, politics, medicine and economics? What if all these things you consider 'evil', actually lead to what makes a nation wealthy? Furthermore, what if they are not evil at all?