In the wake of the recent FBI arrests in Michigan of individuals allegedly planning a terrorist attack on Halloween, a friend who is an American of Arabic descent expressed in a group chat how this incident had left him feeling embarrassed and ashamed. I hastened to point out to him that the alleged actions of the accused, who were reportedly Muslims, were solely a reflection upon themselves and certainly not upon him or any other Muslim.

These arrests in what U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi described as “a major ISIS-linked terror plot” have led some Michiganders and others to question once more whether the Muslim faith and its adherents can be fully assimilated into the United States. Concerns regarding the status of Sharia law on American soil have also been voiced. These concerns are as unwelcome as they are misplaced, and, ironically, those who voice them labor under delusions similar to those who plot and implement such attacks.

Intrinsically and wholly, terrorism is a political act, not a religious act. Anyone seeking to garb terrorism with religion to justify it as a legitimate—indeed imperative—means of killing to advance a sectarian cause is wrong. Equally, it is wrong to use an act of terrorism to color an entire religion on the basis of the actions of a handful of extremists. Bluntly, terrorism is a crime, not a sacrament.

This is not a minor point, nor one that has little or no impact upon Americans who are not Muslim. As any staunch supporter of the Constitution and its protection and recognition of the God-given right to freedom of religion and its exercise can tell, where the rights of one American are infringed, all Americans’ rights are imperiled. That this needs to be reaffirmed in a nation that was initially founded by religious dissidents seeking to escape persecution—a.k.a. the Pilgrims—is disturbing.

Of course, it is appalling that this nation has not always respected and honored this God-given right in both our public actions and the public square. And this is not an arcane complaint about past generations of Americans. In an abuse of power reminiscent of Henry VIII, spurred by its bloodlust to promote abortion by any means necessary and with other people’s money, the Biden Administration tried to “justify” its persecution of faithful Catholics—who followed Church teachings regarding the “seamless garment” of respecting and protecting the sanctity of life—by painting them as “Catholic fundamentalists” and “anti-abortion extremists.” Bluntly, it was an attempt by a leftist Caesar and his secular commissars not to separate church from state but to subordinate church to state, à la communist China. The only thing that halted the left’s religious persecution was the re-election of President Trump. (Nonetheless, the left continues to smear the MAGA movement and the GOP in general as “Christian nationalists.” Somehow, believing in God and country is now taboo within their patently intolerant “our democracy.”)

Terrorism and all forms of civic intimidation are political acts, not religious acts. And, in the case of terrorism and more extreme and/or violent acts of civic intimidation, they are, in fact, often crimes. As such, they solely and directly reflect upon and impugn the person committing them. As I told my friend in the text group, the crimes do not reflect upon or impugn innocent individuals, and certainly not any co-religionists, who are in their own way victims of a perpetrator who falsely aims to use their faith as a shield for his own political sins.

For anyone to confuse or deliberately conflate terrorism with religion makes it harder to find the true political motives of the crime and, consequently, prevent future acts; and it abets the terrorist in promoting his lie, his confusing others, and his disobeying and dishonoring God.

For some, abiding by this may prove difficult, but that is no excuse for failing to do so. As I have recently and continually reaffirmed, our American Republic remains the last bastion of true tolerance. But it requires us to be ever vigilant against enemies both foreign and domestic. And, in trying times, the hardest enemy of all to defeat is the lesser angels of our nature. Fortunately, despite the occasional fits and starts, we Americans have always come to embrace the better angels of our nature and risen on their shoulders to a better tomorrow. May it be so again.

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An American Greatness contributor, the Hon. Thaddeus G. McCotter (M.C., Ret.) served Michigan’s 11th Congressional District from 2003-2012. He served as Chair of the Republican House Policy Committee and as a member of the Financial Services, Joint Economic, Budget, Small Business, and International Relations Committees. Not a lobbyist, he is also a contributor to Chronicles, a frequent public speaker and moderator for public policy seminars, and a co-host of “John Batchelor: Eye on the World” on CBS radio, among sundry media appearances.