Islam is a brutal, tribal warrior cult that glorifies jihad and martyrdom.  The Quran is replete with acts of murder, terrorism, and genocide.

Let us look at some explicit provisions of the Quran:

* Islam is misogynist.  Men are superior to women.  Women are to obey men and are to be beaten when they disobey or misbehave.
* Islam is racist.  The Quran stipulates that the Arabs are superior to all others, and it clearly condones slavery.  It explicitly stipulates discriminatory laws for slaves.
* Islam denounces other belief systems and marginally recognizes the validity of only two religions: Judaism and Christianity.
* Islam is violent.  It not only condones jihad; it recommends it and promises great reward for the jihadist.
* Islam is already splintered in a number of major sects and innumerable numbers of secondary sects that harbor huge disagreement with and animosity toward one another as well as toward all infidels.

Nearly a billion and a half of the human species -- a species supposedly endowed with the greatest of intelligence -- swallows Islam whole and even dispenses it to others by any and all means possible.  It is one of those great mysteries of life that defies any and all logic.

Many animals come with already in-place programs that automatically run much of their lives.  Birds' migration, mating courtship, and thousands of other complex behaviors are instances of this type of specific programming.  A catchword for this type of behavior is "instinct."  As a general rule, the higher the organism, the less is its rigid pre-programs and the greater its latitude to exercise choices.

As humans, our two legs move us along, but it is our minds that tell us which path to take in life and what to do.  As the mind commands, so goes the person.  Yet for humans, the mind does not arrive in this world with a set program of instructions.  Contrary to many beliefs, we are born neither as demons nor as angels.  Within each one of us is the potential for a demon or an angel.  Many evolve into a mix of the two, a few fortunate mature into truly angelic people, and some become personifications of evil.  It is the mind's programming that plays the critical role in making us what we are.

Every one of us arrives in this world as a helpless infant at the mercy of others -- not only to be fed, cleaned and protected, but also to be informed about the bewildering life we face.  Others can teach the new arrivals only what they know and believe.  And much of what adults know and believe is a hodgepodge, handed down to them by the adults that raised them.
Islam, from its inception, discovered the crucial secret of getting to the young mind early by adhering to the dictum: instruction in early childhood is akin to carving in the rock.  In the same vein goes the Jesuit saying, "Give me a child until he is seven, and I will give you the man," derived from the philosophy and theology of Saint Augustine.  The immense importance of getting early to the young mind is also emphasized by non-religious doctrines as diverse as the Freudian psychoanalytic theory and Watsonian Behaviorist psychology.

It is thus that millions of infants annually end up in the care of people who themselves are imbued with a pathological Islamist belief system rooted in the mores and practices of the primitives of the Arabian Peninsula from 1,300 years ago.
From very early on, the young child is indoctrinated in the belief that there is an omniscient, ever-vigilant Allah who observes everything a person does and even everything he contemplates.  Nothing whatsoever escapes this omnipresent, all-knowing being.

 Allah keeps tabs, and he bestows incredibly desirous rewards if one behaves as told, while dispensing unimaginably tortuous punishment if one strays.

The very young human faces, beginning with the minute he can make some sense of the world, a bewildering array of mysteries, challenges, and enticements.  There are questions at every step -- fears and hopes entangled with the need to survive and possibly thrive.

Who am I?  What is this world all about?  What's the purpose?  What am I supposed to do and how?  Where am I headed?  People die.  Where do they go?  And on and on and on. The information booths available to a man in the fairground of life provide him with answers that may help relieve his innate existentialistic anxiety.  And it is here that religion plays its critical role and holds great appeal.  Religion provides a surefire answer to those who are willing to take it on faith.

And Islam is a powerful magnet for the masses who are unable to deal with the uncertainties of life and death on their own.  It is from this population, many already thoroughly indoctrinated from birth that the majority of die-hard jihadists emerge.

It is the bargain the jihadist makes.  He surrenders totally to the religion of surrender in exchange for blanket security.  Islam gives him all the answers he really seeks for dealing with this world and promises him a most lush and eternal paradise of Allah once he leaves it.  And leaving this world in perfect submission as the foot soldier of the paradise's creator gives the faithful unimaginably glorious sensual eternal reward in his next life.  It's a bargain that some buy in whole, while some buy it in part, and some refuse and seek other means of dealing with their questions and the unrelenting existentialistic anxiety.

It is foolish to underestimate the dangers of Islamic mental manipulation.  All Muslims share an Islamic cognitive repertoire, with considerable variations.  As is the case with any population distribution, a great majority forms the middle while minorities populate the extremes.  Islamic apologists and many Muslims point to the middle as true Islam, thereby disassociating themselves from the two extremes and may even denounce them as not being Muslims.

At one extreme are the Nominal Muslims.  These Muslims adhere loosely to the Islamic precepts and practices, ordinarily pose little threat to non-Muslims, and may even reject some aspects of the religion.

At the other extreme are the die-hard fanatical jihadists, who present severe threats not only to non-Muslims, but also to the so-called Moderate Muslims as well as the Nominal Muslims.
To this extremist group, nothing is out of bounds in furthering the cause.  Dissimulation, deception, and all manner of violence are their Quran-sanctioned tools.  As part of their scheme, this malevolent group has adopted highly effective strategies for subjugating the West, its people, and its culture.  In keeping with their supremacist racist cult, their god, Allah, is proclaimed as the greatest god -- Allah-o-Akbar.  Yet, in English, one hears only the deceptive translation -- God is great, and not the actual Arabic:  Allah is the greatest.

History documents the pivotal role of small groups, even individuals, in precipitating monumentally important events.  It is the energized militant minority that often sparks movements and directs the course of human events.  And it is the minority of Muslims, militant and highly motivated soldiers of Allah, who are on the march to defeat the non-believing by any and all means and establish "Caliphatism," the Islamic Kingdom.

Amil Imani is the author of Obama Meets Ahmadinejad and Operation Persian Gulf.