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A terrorism expert and New York Times bestselling author is trying to warn Americans that misinterpreting the Koran encourages terrorism and anti-American sentiment.
Spencer says few people, including President Barack Obama, truly understand what Islam stands for or what true believers of the Islam faith are taught to live and die.
"We're making policy errors based on an ignorance of what our enemies believe," says Spencer. "And because we do not pay any attention to what our enemies believe and how they think, we are not able to formulate a coherent response to it -- and this is hamstringing our efforts to resist."
Spencer further describes that one primary example of this hamstringing resides in the billions of dollars the United States has given to Pakistan as a means to fight against terrorism.
"They have given that money to the terrorists," he contends. "We could have predicted that if we had understood about the nature of Islam in terms of what it teaches about Muslims becoming allies with non-Muslims. A pious Muslim -- and there are a lot of pious Muslims in the Pakistani high command -- will not consider that any alliance with non-Muslims is as important as helping out fellow Muslims."
Spencer says the United States keeps throwing good money after bad by failing to understand the Koran's teachings.