Muslims have the One True Religion. How do we know? Some of them have told us, and continue to tell us, in word and in deed. This is a great blessing for the world, because it means that anyone still looking for the One True Religion can stop. More importantly, we can all quit wasting time believing in any of the others.

For thousands of years the Jews thought they had the One True Religion. (Some believe it still, but the Muslims will correct that error in due time; they're working on it now.)

When the Christians came along they were quite sure they had it; and just to finalize the matter, they invented Hell, and told the Jews that they were welcome to go there. Such was their confidence that they had invented the One True Religion.

And such has been the confidence of every other religion. There have been a million or so of them cobbled together, used for a time, and discarded once another one came along that showed more promise. Some of them last only a little while; some last for thousands of years. There are an untold number of religions in the world today, flickering in and out of existence. And no one has ever been able to prove that any one of them is not the True One.

Every single religion comes equipped with the sublime and inerrant Word of God. The Word is always eternal—for a while. Each iteration of the final and everlasting Word of God cancels out all the others, no matter how long the previous ones have been in business. And each is exactly as final and as unquestionable as the ones that came before—not to be doubted, not to be trifled with.

Timeless and unchanging, the Word is carved into the lofty stone faces of mighty mountains. It is written in the stars. It is unerring and everlasting, the great and inarguable Word of the Supreme Creator. Not a single letter is out of place. It is perfect from start to finish. It is infallible—until it is replaced by a new version.

Everyone waits for the final, revealed Word of God—some patiently, some not. Some don't even know they were waiting; when it is revealed to them it's a surprise—they thought they already had it. Fortunately for them, the recipients of the new and improved Eternal Word of God always stand ready to set them straight.

Some religions pass along the New Eternal Truth in a casual way, by word of mouth. But all the long-lasting, big-time religions come standard with their own manual; and contained within each manual is a sublime collection of revelations—revealed at last and exclusively to a particular group of people, with the instruction that they spread the news.

And spread it they do, with dogged and steadfast diligence.

Every religion has in common the certainty, among its adherents, that it, at last, is the One True Religion, and that the ones that came before it were merely vile and evil pretenses. And many religions also have in common the conviction that the rest of the world needs to join the newly revealed One True Religion, and be quick about it.

For it angers people to the point of homicide that there are others in the world who carelessly go on believing their own brand of religion while the One True Religion is finally available.

Anyone who doubts the arrival of the One True Religion needs to be persuaded, and the persuasion can take many forms. Sometimes it is something mild, like shunning (tame as shunning may be, some people can't bear it for long). Sometimes it is relatively severe, like slaughtering every man, woman, child and domesticated animal this side of the horizon. But no matter the details, the intention is the same. The point to be made is that the One True Religion is here, and the matter is settled.

Most religions regard themselves as 'inclusive.' Indeed, some are inclusive to a fault—a bloody fault. They insist that everyone join: not just people who foolishly cling to their old religions, despite the new revelation; but also people who don't have a religion at all, and therefore might be regarded as members of a non-competing group. Indeed, those with no religion tend to anger the believers of each successive One True Religion most of all.

For the last couple of decades, some Muslims have begun crowding the edges of our consciousness to tell us that the search for the One True Religion is over, and they have the manual to prove it. They’ve had the religion and the manual for quite a while, but recently have determined to get our attention in some very spectacular ways.

We really have no good reason to believe they are not in possession of the real One True Religion. Who are we to argue, we wretched believers in other things—or no things? They have much on their side of the case. Ardor, conviction, devotion and fervor mark their attitude toward the whole business. And enthusiasm. Great howling storms of enthusiasm.

Islam is no casual sort of religion that you pick up on one day of the week and set aside the other six. It is a comprehensive enterprise, with a million and one rules already, and more being discovered every day. There is not a scant detail of life that has escaped notice in the manual and its accompanying rulebooks, and no measure that can’t be enforced upon the rest of us through tireless and ruthless vigilance.

Some measures may seem a bit harsh to some of us at first—like those regarding how to punish assorted miscreants (thieves, adulterers, unbelievers, murderers, women whose ankles are showing, and so on). But there is nothing that human beings cannot learn to accept as commonplace, given time; and no amount of blood is too much to spill in the service of the One True Religion.

It is no small thing that some of the more animated devotees of the Muslim faith are willing to share their way of life with us—share it relentlessly, forcefully, unflinchingly. They know that theirs is a superior way to live; they know it not by evidence, but by feeling, by conviction. And they are so thoroughly interested in our welfare that they mean for us to know it, too.