WHO HATES US? By JACK KELLY

September 13, 2002 -- THE most courageous, and least reported, Sept. 11 observance took place in Iran. Thousands of Iranians, most of them young people, braved arrests and beatings by the secret police to hold candlelight vigils in memory of those who died in the World Trade Center, in the Pentagon and in a field in Somerset County, Pa. "Great American Nation," began a communique from the Student Mobilization Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran (SMCCDI). "The dreadful tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, has brought to light our two nations' common goal, the defeat of religious fascism and terrorism . . . If the struggle against global terrorism is without imperialistic endeavors and shortsighted opportunism, (America) has no better friend and ally than the Iranian people . . . "

SMCCDI reported dozens of arrests and beatings, and that police had opened fire on demonstrators in the Western Iranian city of Mahabad. The government blamed the disturbances on a "few" drug traffickers and CIA agents. The news media, for the most part, considered this remarkable demonstration of support for the United States within a Muslim nation unworthy of note.

The "mainstream" media also pay scant attention to news which reveals the character of the strain of Islam we are fighting.

* In Tehran on Sept. 8, a man beheaded his 7-year-old daughter because he suspected she had been raped by her uncle. An autopsy revealed the little girl was still a virgin.

* Also on Sept. 8, the governor of a Nigerian state refused to overturn the verdict of a religious court that sentenced a woman to death by stoning for adultery. (Her lover, who is married - she is not - has not been punished.)

* In Baghdad on Aug. 27, a mob beheaded a 70-year-old nun. In Denmark in July, a Turkish immigrant murdered his daughter because she wanted to choose her own husband.

* In Saudi Arabia in March, the religious police refused to permit the rescue of 14 girls trapped in a school fire, because the children weren't wearing the head coverings required in public.

We are fighting the ugliest form fascism has ever taken on this planet. The Islamo-fascists mean to suppress all other religions save their own twisted version of Islam; to subordinate civil liberties to the dictates of their mullahs; to enslave women.

The Islamo-fascists fight uglier than any of the fascists who preceded them. The Japanese in World War II were cruel and fanatical. But the kamikazes attacked only military targets. The Islamo-fascists deliberately target civilians. The Japanese mistreated their prisoners. The Islamo-fascists don't take prisoners.

We are fighting the Islamo-fascists because they attacked us.

Americans believe in liberty, democracy and human rights. But we also believe in non-interference in the internal affairs of other nations. If the Islamo-fascists had left us alone, we'd have left them alone. But they didn't. They won't. And so we must destroy them.

Liberals wonder why the Islamo-fascists hate us so. They assume that it must, in some measure, be our fault. But it isn't. The Islamo-fascists hate us because we do not share their evil. They hate us because the young people in their countries are attracted to what we stand for, as the brave students in Iran bear witness.

We shouldn't wring our hands over the the Islamo-fascists' hatred. We should wear it as a badge of honor.

The Iranian kids, among others, appreciate this: "The president of the United States in an unprecedented and daring speech declared that the people of Iran have no better friend than you the people of these United States," SMCCDI said in its communique.

By contrast, the contemporary Copperheads have the vision of ostriches, the courage of rabbits and the compassion of vultures. We have mourned our dead. Now let us avenge them.

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-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002