In the aftermath of the horrific suicide bombing, the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, wanted to make one thing perfectly clear. The man who blew himself was a terrorist, not a Muslim. To quote him directly, "The message that I would want to get over—and this is how the vast majority of people feel—this man was a terrorist, not a Muslim."

Mr. Burnham, with all respect to the pain your community is experiencing, and with full recognition of your desire to unite your people, you are terribly wrong. Dead wrong. The suicide bomber was a terrorist because of his Muslim faith. Until you acknowledge that and until the people of your community acknowledge that, you will not be able to combat the terror.

I imagine that most of the Muslims in Manchester are aghast at this atrocity. And I imagine most of them look at this as a perversion of their faith.

But many others do not. For them, this is what Islam does. It fights the unbelievers wherever it finds them, especially at a worldly concert attended by young people. Infidels!

I understand, Mr. Burnham, that your point was that Salman Abedi was not a true Muslim, since true Muslims do not commit such acts.

In that case, neither Osama bin Laden nor any members of Al-Qaeda were (or are) true Muslims.

And neither Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the founder of ISIS, who holds a Ph.D. in Quranic Studies from Iraq's Saddam University for Islamic Studies, nor any members of ISIS are true Muslims.

And no member of the Taliban or Hamas (which stands for the "Islamic Resistance Movement") or Hezbollah ("The Party of Allah") or the Muslim Brotherhood are true Muslims.

And it's just a coincidence that during the month of Ramadan, Islamic terrorist attacks increase dramatically around the world. read more