Today, I saw this photo from September 11, 2001, on a Facebook page, accompanied by a link to a story about the photo in Esquire Magazine. The photo, of course, is riveting, and the Esquire article is properly compelling. I was moved to comment on the photo as to how the so-called “mainstream” media is doing its very best to wipe this photo from our history, along with all others like it. I further mentioned their reluctance to blame Islamic fanatics for the attack, and added my opinion that among their reasons for doing so was a deep desire not to “offend” Muslims.

This set off a firestorm of criticism. I was called a “hater”, a “radical”, and someone of an “ilk”, an insulting word if ever there was one. I was accused of saying these things out of “fear”, and why don’t I take this day off just to remember the innocent victims who died twelve years ago in those cowardly attacks. I wish the people who attacked me on Facebook would take one day out of the year (preferably today) to remember who caused these horrific acts of terror and violence.

I know it seems to some that speaking out on the attackers is “radical”, since the media rarely, if ever, talks about it anymore. Images like the one above or of the planes crashing into the Twin Towers are virtually nowhere to be found. Through their talking-head pundits and op-ed journalists, they’ve convinced people like those who criticized me today that such reminders are “hateful” and “fear-based” and the always-ready “unproductive”. Well, I can say, quite honestly, that I don’t fear or hate Muslims.

The truth is, however, that, generally speaking, I don’t like Muslims very much at all. Since the entrenchment of Islam around 1200 years ago, they have  constantly turned to violence to address their every grievance, no matter how insignificant. It’s gotten so they understand little else besides bloodshed and destruction. But it wasn’t always like that.

The pre-Mohammed culture in what is today’s Arab world was arguably one of the world’s most advanced. It was behind the construction of great cities. It nourished libraries, universities, a complex written language, a solid grasp on mathematics, and a genuine curiosity about the rest of the world, resulting in exploration and opening of trade routes. But following the establishment of Islam, a process that took about 200 years, the culture hit a brick wall and has been declining ever since. Today, there is no school in the Muslim world worth attending, there is no manufactured product worth exporting, and almost no government truly serving the needs of its people in even the smallest way. Go to the Muslim world today and you will see that nearly every artifact, from the airplane to the paper clip, is made somewhere else.

Death is the only remedy Muslims traditionally seek for their perceived enemies (and boy, do they perceive a lot of enemies), who range from those who make war upon them all the way down to those who draw cartoons for a living. Think of a Muslim and the image of a bearded male comes to mind, his fist in the air, his mouth open in rage, fury in his eyes, and surrounded by a crowd of like-minded individuals.

Their fervent desire to kill every Jew on the planet, starting with those living in Israel, causes in me a trembling remembrance of Hitler’s holocaust. Yet, this seems to be ignored by a lot of people, including (astonishingly) some Jewish politicians in this country.

There are those who are saying right now, “Oh, you’re crazy. The Muslim grocer in my neighborhood is a gentle soul and wouldn’t hurt a fly.” Well, maybe not, but saying that implies my inclusion of every last Muslim on the face of the earth in my comments. Not true.

The fact is, there are some one billion Muslims on earth. They say at least ten percent of them are radical fanatics, meaning there are a minimum of one hundred million people out there who want to kill us all, who rejoice in seeing photos like the one above, and who claim to follow the dictates of the Quran to the letter in pursuit of their bloodlust. If that automatically means there are nine hundred million “peaceful” or “moderate” Muslims on earth, why aren’t they doing anything to clean up their dirty laundry, to seek out and punish that measly ten percent who are responsible for all the blood that has been shed in their wars over the last thousand years. I tend to believe a great percentage of that nine hundred million silently subscribe to the efforts of the active fanatics to spread Islam and kill its enemies.

Remember, the fanatics are driven by religious zeal, not by political or partisan motives. This would separate them from most non-Muslim warmongers, who have sought to either establish or upset a political balance of power in various regions of the world. Their religion permeates deep into the “peaceful”, “moderate” element in a way that political fervor cannot.

This is what really pains me about the so-called “peaceful” Muslims. I don’t recall any sustained effort by American Muslims (like the little grocer or the shoe repairman), or by “peaceful” Muslims anywhere for that matter, to loudly condemn the violence or to stand up against it in any way. One day, and that day may have already arrived, the “peaceful” Muslims may, like “peaceful” Germans during the 1930s, wake up to find their world has been seized by the true haters, the true radicals, who are willing to set the entire world aflame. And then it will be too late.

So here we are on September 11, 2013. Twelve years after the original cowardly attacks. I speak out about the perpetrators and am called a “hater” for doing so.

Is this progress? Is this really what we want?