One religion today regularly motivates large numbers of its followers to murder, behead, rape, and enslave people across the globe. That religion is Islam. Not Christianity. Not Judaism. Not Buddhism. Islam. Only Islam. You know this. I know this. Everyone paying attention knows this.

The Koran explicitly and repeatedly commands Muslims to engage in jihad or “holy war” whether they like it or not. “Jihad (holy fighting in Allah’s Cause) is ordained for you (Muslims) though you dislike it, and it may be that you dislike a thing which is good for you and that you like a thing which is bad for you. Allah knows but you do not know” (e.g., 2:216, 9:38). The Koran explicitly and repeatedly commands Muslims to “kill the unbelievers wherever you find them” (e.g., 2:191, 9:5), “strike off their heads” (e.g., 8:12, 47:4), make sex slaves of their wives and daughters (e.g., 4:24, 33:50), and continue this jihad “until all opposition ends and all submit to ‘Allah’” (e.g., 8:39, 9:29). You know this. I know this. Everyone paying attention knows this.

According to Islam, the “Prophet” Muhammad is the ideal role model for all boys and men; he sets the perfect example for how to live and wage jihad. Muhammad regularly killed and beheaded unbelievers (e.g., the massacre of Banu Qurayza), made slaves of those he conquered but didn’t kill (he had many slaves), “married” (i.e., repeatedly raped) slave girls (e.g., Safiyah and Rayhana), raped children as young as nine years old (e.g., Aisha), and founded a religion in which all such behavior is regarded as morally great because the “Prophet” did it. You know this. I know this. Everyone paying attention knows this.

Of course, not all Muslims engage in the above-mentioned behavior. But this does not change the fact that Islamic scripture commands or condones such behavior. It simply means that some Muslims don’t take Islam seriously. For that we can be thankful.

Unfortunately, as anyone can see by glancing at the news, many Muslims do take Islam seriously. Jihadists across the globe—from the Middle East to Africa to the United States to Canada—are murdering, beheading, enslaving, and raping “infidels” wherever and whenever they can. And these jihadists are supported by Islamic theocracies such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, which encourage and fund such barbarism.

Everyone paying attention knows at least that much. Granted, some know it in greater detail than others. But everyone with a functioning mind who has not been asleep since September 11, 2001, has a basic understanding of the foregoing facts.

Yet many people—from leaders of the (semi-)free world to leftist intellectuals, journalists, and celebrities—pretend otherwise. George W. Bush, for instance, says “Islam is peace” and a “noble faith.” Barack Obama says “Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance”; “Islam is not part of the problem” but “an important part of promoting peace.” David Cameron says “Islam is a religion of peace”; jihadists such as members of Islamic State “are not Muslims” but “monsters.”

Leftists such as Glenn Greenwald, Nathan Lean, Nicholas Kristof, and Ben Affleck go further. They not only pretend that Islam is not inherently barbaric; they also smear those who point out that it is inherently barbaric. If you call Islam or its serious practitioners barbaric—heck, if you so much as say “Islam is the mother lode of bad ideas,” as Sam Harris recently did—the leftist smear brigade will label you “Islamophobic” (as if fear of Muslims who actively seek to kill you were irrational); “racist” (as if Islam were a race rather than a religion); “intolerant” (as if you should put up with people who seek to behead, enslave, or rape you and your loved ones); and all manner of other absurdities. Leftists will also point out that, like the Koran, the Talmud and the Bible contain commandments to kill unbelievers, homosexuals, and other “sinners,” and that these books also condone slavery and the like—as if such truths somehow change the fact that today only Islam motivates large numbers of its followers and, indeed, entire nations to murder and enslave people in the name of “God.”

Why do so many people pretend not to know what they know about Islam and its unique role in the world today? Why do so many smear those who speak the truth about this horrendous religion and its devout followers? Why do so many ignore the fact that although other religions involve barbaric commandments, none motivates large numbers of its followers to commit atrocities the way Islam does today?

We can only speculate as to people’s motives on this count. Perhaps some feel that by pretending not to know what they know about Islam they can somehow make Islam not be what it is. Perhaps some have accepted the religious dogma “Judge not, that ye be not judged” or the relativist mantra “Who are you to judge?” and thus are afraid to judge or think for themselves. Perhaps some see that to criticize Islam for its irrational, faith-based tenets is to expose the fundamental illegitimacy of religion as such, and they are hesitant to do that. Perhaps some loathe freedom, America, and Western values and see the spread of Islam as a way to help eradicate these “problems.” Again, we can only speculate.

Whatever people’s motives, these facts remain: (1) To pretend not to know what one knows is to be dishonest. (2) When we know that a person is being dishonest, we have a selfish, moral responsibility to acknowledge the fact and to judge him as dishonest. (3) When a person is dishonest in a way that intentionally whitewashes a religion that commands its followers to murder, enslave, or rape us or our loved ones—or when a person smears people for stating the unvarnished truth about that religion—we have a selfish, moral responsibility to judge that person as evil.

Just as we have a moral responsibility not only to judge Nazism and its serious practitioners as evil, but also to judge those who whitewash them as evil; so too we have a moral responsibility not only to judge Islam and its serious practitioners as evil, but also to judge those who whitewash them as evil. There are, of course, degrees of evil among such whitewashers—but those degrees are degrees of evil. People who knowingly whitewash evil are by that fact and to that extent evil.

We who want to live and love life have a selfish, moral responsibility not only to say what we know to be true about Islam and its serious practitioners, but also to say what we know to be true about those who seek to whitewash them.

Islam is evil because (among other reasons) it commands or condones murder, slavery, rape, and the like; Muslims who take Islam seriously and thus seek to engage in such barbarism are evil for doing so; and those who whitewash these evils are evil for their part in advancing this god-awful nightmare.

We who know this should say so. Keeping silent on the matter effectively whitewashes the whitewashers.

Related: