The cover of a Koran. Photo: Wiki Commons.

We all know the drill: Let Islamic fanatics butcher random civilians in cold blood while shouting “Allahu Akbar!” — and sundry Western pundits and politicos will immediately sally forth to insist, tirelessly and at length, that such attacks have nothing to do with Islam. At all. Ever.

The same script has played out following the Paris massacre on November 13. The terror attacks, British Home Secretary Theresa May informs us, “have nothing to do with Islam.” The head of Georgia’s Orthodox Church, Patriarch Ilia II, likewise assures us that Islam “has nothing to do with” the attacks. So does US Secretary of State John Kerry. And the Grand Mufti of Syria (a country from where some of the terrorists hailed).

That we constantly need to be told that terrorism has nothing to do with Islam automatically invalidates such assurances.

Western opinion-formers have been in collective denial about the normative Islamic beliefs that drive modern jihadism, and no country has been more in the cross-hairs of both jihadism and the reflexive denial of its true nature than Israel.

Palestinian terrorism is always attributed to Israel’s alleged crimes that provoke it, never to Islamic beliefs that actually inspire it. The almost universal animosity of Muslims worldwide to the Jewish State, from before it was even founded, has been driven by time-honored, deeply intolerant and doctrinaire Islamic beliefs, which are sanctioned by the Koran and the conduct of Islam’s prophet, Mohammad. Nary a day passes without a luxuriously bearded imam, mullah, or ayatollah somewhere issuing bloodcurdling threats of righteous vengeance against Jews, and other infidels, while thumping the Koran, citing chapter and verse and evoking the prophet’s example.

Where on earth do they get the idea that it’s okay to hate, harass, and murder non-Muslims? Let’s flip open the Koran almost at random. A sample from its second chapter “The Cow,” which follows a brief preamble about the greatness of Allah: “And slay the unbelievers wherever you find them, [as being subjugated by them] is worse than killing” (2:191). That’s not very equivocal, is it?

Following close by in the same surah (chapter) comes this: “Warfare is ordained for you, and though you may dislike it … Allah knows [what’s good for you], and you know not” (2:216). In other words, you may be a laid-back sort of fellow who thinks highly of live-and-let-live, but Allah thinks you should join the jihadists.

And we’ve barely even got past the first few pages. The Koran repeatedly calls Jews and Christians “the sons of monkeys and pigs,” and advises Muslims not to “take them for friends and allies” (Koran 5:51). Hamas’ charter includes a popular saying attributed to Mohammed, which has it that “The Day of Judgment will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them.”

Still, the problem isn’t so much that Islam may be an inherently intolerant religion. The problem is that we’re hamstrung by a misconstrued sense of “respect” for the beliefs of Muslims, including those who would rather see us dead. In fact, the more many Muslims become radicalized worldwide, the more we collectively look the other way and carry on pontificating knowingly about the alleged “root causes” that drive Islamist radicalization.

Islam is what Muslims make it. So don’t keep telling us that it’s a peaceful religion that does not inspire or condone terrorism. Tell ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Boko Haram, and all the rest of them!