A review of Because They Hate. By Brigitte Gabriel.

St. Martins Press, 2006.

Lebanon used to be a bright spot in a very dark Middle East. It was a rare democracy with a Christian majority. Muslims and non-Muslims could live together in peace and calm, even at the political level. It was a beacon of hope and freedom to the surrounding Arab nations. The Lebanese had the highest standard of living in the area. In many ways it seemed more like a Western nation, and Beirut was known as the Paris of the Middle East.

But all that changed in 1975 when radical Muslims from surrounding nations declared jihad on the Lebanese Christians, and poured into Southern Lebanon to set up a Muslim state. Radical Muslims who hated democracy and wanted to impose Sharia law turned the Lebanese oasis into a hell hole.

Among those who lived through the terror was one young Maronite Christian girl, Brigitte Gabriel. She was ten years old when the rape of Lebanon began. For the next seven years she and her family would spend most of their time living in an underground bomb shelter, enduring the onslaught of Islamist anger and fury.

Image of Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America
Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America by Gabriel, Brigitte (Author) Amazon logo

She witnessed firsthand the murder, rape, hatred and genocide of a once-great land. She experienced the terror, ethnic cleansing, and dictatorship of Muslim radicals. And she also saw how these Islamists masterfully controlled and manipulated the media, to make it look like they were the good guys, and the Christians and Jews were the source of evil in the region.

This book tells her story in chilling and moving detail. But the book is much more than a personal story. It is also a warning. It is a warning to America and the West that the very thing that happened to Lebanon is now happening to all Western democracies. Radical Muslims have declared a holy war against the West, and made clear their intention of destroying it.

Radical Muslims made their intentions known about Lebanon, and they did what they said they would do. They are now telling us their intentions about the West. And they are working to carry out those intentions. Gabriel asks, will we learn from the experience in Lebanon? Or will the West close its eyes and pretend the threat of radical Islam does not exist?

The recent incursion of Israel into Lebanon must be seen from the backdrop of the story told in this book. The hatred and venom that Muslims have for Jews is carefully discussed here. The desire of 150 million surrounding Muslims to drive 5 million Jews into the sea is a daily reality for the Israelis.

And as Gabriel shows, the same media manipulation and deception is taking place now, as it did three decades ago. A favourite tactic of the Palestinians then, like Hezbollah now, is to set up rocket attacks from Christian villages. After the rockets are fired, the Islamists quickly pull out, knowing full well Israeli reprisals will then fall on innocent Christian habitations. And the media of course will be there to record the Jewish “barbarism,” while ignoring the initial terrorist attacks.

The horrible tactics and the frightening aims of the Islamists are here carefully laid out. So too are the lies and the deception Islamists are quite happy to resort to. There are even Arabic terms for these: taqiyya and kithman.

Radical Muslims are willing to present themselves as victims and oppressed peoples. And apologists for the Islamists, and those who loathe their own Western heritage, readily find reasons to blame the West for Islamic terrorism. Somehow the West is to blame for acts of Islamist outrage.

Yet as Gabriel reminds us, it is foolish to suggest that we must somehow address their grievances. “Their grievance is our freedom of religion. Their grievance is our democratic process.” These radicals have repeatedly made their goals known: they seek to destroy Western democracies and set up an Islamic state. Says Gabriel, “Unless we take them at their word, and defend ourselves accordingly, they will succeed.”

And she reminds us that there is a sacred obligation to impose Islam on the entire world. This is not a distortion of Islam, nor the ideas just of extremists, but the very heart of mainstream Islam. “It is mandated by the holy writings of Islam, as interpreted by a vast majority of the classical authorities.”

Indeed, we must reject the myth of moderate Islam. While there are many moderate Muslims, the religion itself is not moderate. Religious and political freedoms are just not hallmarks of Muslim societies. Indeed, the “only social liberal thinkers in the Muslim-Arab Islamo-fascist world are dead ones”.

In this important book Gabriel documents the many Islamist assaults on the West, and asks why we even allow terrorists to live in our own countries, as they prepare to carry out their acts of carnage and destruction. The parallels between what is now happening in the West and what took place in her homeland are too ominous to be ignored. Yet the West seems intent on doing just that.

Gabriel says we must wake up to the fact that a war has been declared against the West. Do we have the will and the resolve to defend our way of life, or will we simply give up without a fight?

She closes her volume with a number of hard-hitting recommendations if the West is to prevail in this conflict. For America these include much stricter border controls, development of alternative energy sources, and security profiling of high-risk groups.

These and other stringent steps must be taken if we want to win this battle against the Islamic terrorists. Mere conciliation, arbitration and diplomacy will not reduce the threat. The radical Muslims do what they do because they hate. And until we learn that lesson the casualties will continue to mount, and freedoms will continue to be snatched away.

To understand the hatred, and why this hatred is such a threat, all concerned citizens must read this book. It is a prophetic warning to the free West. If we do not want to see what happened to Lebanon take place on a far greater scale, then we must wake up to the threat that is staring us in the face, and take appropriate steps in response.

This book is a much needed wake up call to a sleepy and indifferent West. But if we do not heed its warnings, we may well find that the free West will be no more.

[1074 words]

6 Replies to “A review of Because They Hate. By Brigitte Gabriel.”

  1. Good review Bill. You stayed clear of some of her recommendation details while giving the gist, perspective, and clarity from this highly credible source. Amazing that such people are ignored while the silly American girl throwing herself in front of a bulldozer, for example, was given enormous coverage.

    Gratefully the author was on a nationally syndicated radio show (Michael Medved) the pop culture and movie critic guy the other night on a Chicago radio station WIND. She did quite well. Thanks for being on top of the news as usual. Have you seen the link to the movie documentary she is partially featured in, named Obsession? If time, you might include a link.

    For people who think ‘hate speech’ is anything that disagrees with them which they deem as ‘insensitive’, they might want to consider this book so they can discover that ‘hate’ has a more proper definition. An accidental bump is one thing, something said or done that is sincerely apologized for that caused no harm is something else, and something insensitive to ones need to be “only affirmed” is still something else.

    Hate has a definition and this author nails it. Mis-applying the term to a feigned-wounded activists’ over-active ego and their hyper-lawyers over silly psycho-babble about the wounding of someone’s ‘inner child’ or whatever, both misses the definition and dumbs it down so that when it DOES in fact apply, we miss the significance. Thanks for your clarity as usual.

    Joe Whitchurch, Indianna, USA

  2. A “must read” book and a very good review. Our problem is that lefties and anti-Americans in general blame America for “wanting to grab the oil” or some other ulterior motive.
    Many others put the war on terror in their “too hard” basket and hope it will all just go away. Which leaves people like you and me who can see the danger and the tactics, and try to support President Bush, Prime Ministers Howard and Blair in their efforts. We also try to put the case in letters to the Editor, where we are often outnumbered by the lefties, and the victims of suspected “sabotage”.
    This is a tough fight against a cunnng and ruthless enemy. It could drag on for years, with jihadists hoping the Western dislike for long wars will eventually cause us to give up. It will be hard to win, but win we must. For the sake of our children, grandchildren and their children, we have to “stay in there sluggin”.
    AA Hoysted, Victoria

  3. I am 100% behind you Bill. I believe and trust in the knowledge that we all living in the west should stand up and fight for our rights and our freedom.
    God has given us freedom so that no man has the right to enslave, or take the life of another due to his extreme beliefs. I’m certainly aware of the radical muslims and do not fear them for the lord and saviour of the universe Jesus Christ is with me as he is with all his followers.
    If we are in a war against terror, and if we feel that we have lots to lose, then shouldn’t we defend the West, rather than ignoring it, in the hope that things will change?
    We are only giving in to their ways when we choose to ignore and be evasive to their ways of life. If we all only voiced how we truly felt and put those thoughts into serious action, with God backing us, who can be against us.
    Fivos Panayiotou

  4. i agree 100% with you. our nation is very sleepy and oblivious to the fact that we are allowing the threat of the world to sleep behind our borders. I am a baptist christian and hold strongly to my belief that God is the one and true God that has his will. we need to wake up and turn to him and open our eyes and do something about it before our nation is torn to shreds. Very excellent review. and a must read book!!
    Brandon Cranfield

  5. and to Fivos, God is the only one that can pull us out of this, His will will be done. God help our nation if we choose to ignore the potential threat. God is with us and will bless his people. That is why our nation is still on this planet. For example, Sodom and Gomorrah, God did not spare them because Abraham asked Him if he would spare the city if there were any righteous, but there were none. God will bless his children and we “… can do all things thru Christ which…” strengthens us.
    Brandon Cranfield

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