Five people are in police custody in connection with the beheading of three Christian schoolgirls in Indonesia, according to "AsiaNews." Apparently, the girls were decapitated during an Oct. 29, massacre on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Such attacks on Christians by Muslim militants are common all over the world, from Russia to the Philippines, and in France, the heart of Europe, as we recently wrote about in this space. But how is that possible? I thought the reason that Islamic savages are murdering people is because of the presence of the Untied States armed forces in a particular country. Indonesia, thousands of miles from Iraq and the Middle East, is a country with 241,973,879 people (July 2005 est.). It is an Islamic country with about 220,000,000 million Muslims. That's more than the Muslims in Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, combined. About 5 percent of the people of Indonesia are Protestant, and 3 percent Roman Catholic, so Indonesia isn't being "overrun" with Christians. Why then are Islamic savages murdering Christian school girls? The propaganda would have us believe that Muslims kill Christians, especially Americans, because "they may have legitimate grievances against us . . . we bring on attacks by Muslims by our past actions . . . their cause is just . . . we're the real terrorists . . . because we Americans are trying to take over their land?" That won't fly, because there is no American military presence in Indonesia, and the Christian girls who were beheaded were Dutch. Could it be that Islamic savages relish killing Christians because they are taught from childhood that all non-Muslims are to be killed unless we convert to Islam?

War protestor Cindy Sheehan calls Islamic terrorists "freedom fighters." I wonder if Ms. Fonda, oops, sorry, I meant to write Ms. Sheehan, would like to explain to the parents of the Christian girls beheaded by her so-called "freedom fighters" how freedom is enhanced by cutting the heads off little girls on their way to church? Why do the Cindy Sheehan types feel such sympathy for the devil? Is it because to be an appeaser, one must first develop a liking for the causes of one's enemy? I wonder if those Americans who aid the enemy have ever taken a real look at the teachings of Islam, as we'll do shortly.

Even nonbelievers should expect a particular religion to promote a sort of moral government. One looks at all religions, as a lifetime student of human behavior, and reasonably asks how well a particular religion succeeds at turning beasts into men, savages into citizens, and how well that religion offers hope and courage to the masses, now and in the hereafter, and how well a particular religion positively influences the history of a people. I would say that in the case of Christianity and Judaism men have been turned from beasts into human beings, except for randomly appearing un-evolved types like Hitler and Stalin and "gangsta rappers."

Both Christianity and Judaism have been overwhelmingly positive influences in attempting to civilize man. Islam, on the other hand, has a history of doing the opposite. We see men turned to beasts in our time among too many of the believers in Islam. How's that possible? Let's take a peak at some of the teachings of Mohammed and the Koran. By the way, the "scholarly" spellings of Mohammed and Koran are "Muhammad" and "Qur'an," and just in case yawl need to know, boys, the easiest to read translation of the Koran is by N. J. Dawood, "The Koran" (Penquin Books). We'll be donating a copy to the "shearing seminar series," when it goes on sale. In the meantime, I'd be pleased to read selections from my copy, if yawl would just let me know when two or more of yawl are gathered together for a haircut.

Take a look at Koran 5:51, "Oh you who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors: they are but friends and protectors to each other. And he amongst you that turns to them (for friendship) is of them." Koran 9:5, " . . . slay the idolaters wherever ye find them." Palestinian Authority Television [see Call for killing Jews and Americans, "Middle East Media Research Institute," at www.memri.org] regularly broadcasts sermons like the one from Dr. Ahmad Abu Halabiya, who often quotes Koran passages like those from 5:51 and 9:5, just quoted, to preach, as Halabiya did, the following: "Wherever you are kill those Jews and those Americans who are like them, and those who stand by them, they are all in one trench, against the Arabs and the Muslims, because they established Israel here, in the beating heart of the Arab world, in Palestine. They created it to be the outpost of their civilization and the vanguard of their army, and to be the sword of the West and the crusaders, hanging over the necks of . . . the Muslims in these lands." Once again how does that justify the beheading, in a place thousands of miles from "Palestine," of little Dutch Christian girls on their way to church? They were murdered in a whole different part of the world? The justification for murdering innocents in Indonesia comes not from the presence of Jews and Americans in far off "Palestine," but from the teachings of the Koran. Muslims from such diverse (means "different," boys) places as Indonesia, where thousands of Christians have been murdered simply for being Christians, and Muslims in Flint, Michigan; Dallas, Texas and Jonesboro, Arkansas can quote whole passages from the Koran at the age of four. The recent "feel good" series from Jonesboro's KAIT, "Muslims in Region 8," innocently provided us with that unreassuring information.

Finally, it's true that in the United States of America we have freedom of religion, but that freedom stops with the knife at our neck , surely! We need to recognize our enemies, and to understand that their common international "religion" contains a primer, a guidebook, and provides a goal, for our destruction.

Kenneth Kinchen is an independent writer with a background in international business and foreign service contracting.