It is not their silence that has made them irrelevant. They are pretty much powerless to do anything about it, just like the average Japanese people etc,.
When a force like this grows there is little to do about it that will be effective, especially from a nation outside of their primary influence.
The reason for this problem being unique is that it is stateless. There is no one entity to fight and vanquish.
Our only hope is that countries like Egypt revolt from within as they just did. I have yet to hear of a way for an outside entity to play a role in the defeat of radical Islam. The solution will have to come from within countries other than ours.
I believe that modernism is our greatest ally. Bitch as we might about our media, it is from our media influence worldwide that people elsewhere can crave a better life by seeing it in front of them, even if idiots like the Kardashians may be the ones they are seeing most.
True but not entirely correct.
The expansion of Wahbi Islam is being financed primarily from Saudi Arabia.
We could do something about it but are politically unwilling. Saudi money is used to build Mosques and schools through out the world that teach the Wahhabi version of Sunni Islam. This malignant form of Islam teaches that it is the will of Allah that non-Muslims be killed or enslaved if they refuse to be converted to Islam.
We could use political pressure to convince the Saudis to cease this expansion of Islam but the Saudi money greases too many hands throughout government, academia and the entertainment world.
The advances in the field of oil exploration and mining gives me some hope (not much really) that Saudi influence and funding of the expansion of Islam will be reduced as the supply of oil expands. However as the supply of oil grows so will demand as the third world develops.
One of two things will probably occur; either we will go to war against Islam (the present low level war will become a full blown and acknowledged war) or we will fall under the same servitude to Islam that has befallen most Western Europe. Right now if I had to guess I would bet on the latter. And I say that simply because there is not even any acknowledgement of the problem by media or government in this country.
Just as the article states if we deny the existence of the problem we have not chance of dealing with that problem.
All we do is make mistakes when we're dealing with the issue. Our 'leaders' came up with the brain-dead idea that these people needed the vote. That's nuts at this stage. What these countries need is a discussion about the equivalent of the bill of rights. Each could be discussed for a year - then put to a vote. The thought process involved is what will bring about the changes.
Iraq's Saddam loved 'the vote' - he would win 98% of it and have his ego inflated. Dictators love votes... What they don't want is citizens with power. That's what the US offers the world - NOT the right to vote for one blowhard over another, but the freedom not to have to deal with the blowhards.