Radicals send photo of headless body: 'We will kill you. Like this'
Editor's Note: The following contains references to graphic violence and images:
A recent e-mail to a website launched after the 9/11 terror attacks to document the instances of Islamic violence said simply: "We will kill you. Like this ... "
The message included a photograph of a man who had been beheaded, his body resting chest down on grass and his lifeless head placed in the middle of his own back. Another photograph showed a bloody knife.
But the operator of The Religion of Peace website says those types of threats don't bother him much.
"I don't think anyone who is serious about killing me is going to announce it in advance," the operator, who uses the pseudonym Glen Reinsford, told WND. "Still, one more reason to stay anonymous."
Reinsford's website intends to demonstrate extreme violence is an integral part of fundamental Islam, not merely a means by which only radicals try to achieve "out-of-the-mainstream goals."
Its list of "offerings" from the "Religion of Peace" for a single day this week: In Iraq, a bomb was placed near an ancient Christian church and two were killed; three innocents were cut down by a Taliban bomb in Afghanistan, and in Baghdad Sunni bombers murdered five Shia pilgrims.
It also keeps readers updated on other statistics. For the week of Dec. 12-18, there were 42 jihad attacks, 182 people killed and 362 people critically injured. For the month of November, there were 139 attacks in 14 different nations involving five religions, with 529 fatalities and 1,075 critically injured.
The list is divided by years. Its many stark descriptions include a report from Nov. 24 in Afghanistan: "Four children are blown to bits when Islamic fundamentalists set off a roadside bomb next to a family vehicle."
Reinsford explained in his "About" page, his alarm came about because of the integration of Islam and violence, typified by the 9/11 attacks that killed almost 3,000 innocent bystanders.
"In fact, some Muslims actually celebrated the attacks, and not just overseas, but even in the offices of the U.S. State Department," he wrote. "There were a few passionless, self-serving denunciations, to be sure, but Muslims save their real outrage for times when a Western leader makes a public statement against veils and headscarves, or someone draws a Muhammad cartoon.
"By and large, most could hardly care less about the thousands of people who lose their lives in the name of this religion each year. It was not for three years, in fact, that there was even a fatwa issued against these attacks. To this day, major Muslim-American groups are reluctant to denounce Osama Bin Laden by name," he said.
Islam, he noted, has been called a "religion of peace" by many, including President George W. Bush, who said, "The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam … Islam is peace."
But Reinsford believes Islam inspires not only "an enormous amount of violence, but an astonishing level of indifference and self-centeredness as well."
"We watched in the months following 9/11, as Muslim-American groups began to act as hindrances in the war on terror and the efforts of Americans to defend themselves. We saw them ignore nearly every act of daily Islamic terror and instead publicize obscure issues and personal slights against Muslims and 'insults to Islam' that are absolutely trivial by comparison.
"Finally, we came to realize that this extraordinary arrogance and self-absorption on the part of the Muslim community, along with an inability to empathize with people who are not like them or engage in the sort of self-critique that leads to moral progress is in no way incidental to the religion.
"There is something deeply, deeply wrong with Islam," Reinsford wrote.
He said the site originally was begun "in the naïve hope" that Muslims just didn't realize the extent of the violence done in the name of Islam.
"Perhaps," he wrote, "if they understood, then they might be motivated to turn the critical eye inward and resolve those far more important issues that leave so many lives in agony and force the consumption of so many billions of dollars in security resources."
However, "we never once heard" from a Muslim condemning the violence.
So the mission was refined to "present the truth about Islam and how it is so tragically different from other religions, including its incompatibility with secularism and Western liberal values," he said.
"The ridiculous level of violence committed in the name of this religion is staggering, despite the many billions of dollars that are spent each year to prevent attacks," he said. "Muslim apologists are constantly telling Westerners that the solution to the violence is greater understanding and tolerance for Islam. But isn't it the killers and their supporters who need lessons in tolerance and understanding … not their victims?"
The website notes the horrific toll from Islamic attacks, with more victims each year than there were in all 350 years of the Spanish Inquisition.
"Islamic terrorists murder more people every day than the Ku Klux Klan has in the last 50 years."
In the e-mail interview, Reinsford told WND his is a one-man operation that costs several thousands dollars a year to keep online. The website came about to make a point about the extent of violence; not necessarily a reaction to the terrorism "but rather to the apathy on the part of Muslims."
"While I would say that most Muslims probably don't agree with Islamic terror, the things that do seem to genuinely upset them instead (such as cartoons and hijab bans) seem relatively trivial to me. Early on I realized that there is something about Islam that really skews priorities."
His work essentially is to simply list the incidents of violence.
"The data for the list of attacks is compiled daily from Internet news sources. I try to stick with the more reliable reports – and I do strive for accuracy, although I'm sure the list is far from perfect," he told WND.
"For one thing, there is an awful lot that is missed, usually because it isn't reported. The genocide in Darfur is probably the best example. I don't have very many victims listed even though there have been plenty."
"Those committing the violence do so explicitly in the name of Islam, which Westerners should find alarming given the rising assertiveness on the part of a growing Muslim minority within our own borders," he said.
The sword and whip mentality in Islam also causes him concern.
"How can we expect Islam to be of benefit to the West when it can't even produce countries that attract Muslims?" he wondered.
His website notes attacks have been documented in Iraq, India, Sudan, Algeria, Afghanistan, New York, Pakistan, Israel, Russia, Chechnya, the Philippines, Indonesia, Nigeria, England, Thailand, Spain, Egypt, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Pennsylvania, Denmark, Germany, Denmark, Canada and a long list of additional nations totaling more than 60.