Posted on 07/10/2005 9:19:10 PM PDT by CHARLITE
The slaughter in London is another grisly wake-up call that likely will go as unheeded as earlier ones. Already the standard narrative is being trotted out: evildoers created by what the New York Times predictably called the “root causes of terrorism”: autocracy, or economic stagnation, or Palestinian suffering, or globalization's dislocations, or Western historical sins, or the war in Iraq (the cause will depend on the political prejudices of the pundit) have “hijacked” Islam and distorted its peaceful message.
And now they are using Islam to justify murder in order to further their own ambitions or dysfunctional psychic needs. Given this explanation, so the story goes, we must be careful not to demonize all Muslims and assure them that we respect their religion and culture. The tale is then wrapped up with fierce threats against the terrorists and protestations of admiration for Islam.
Believing this delusion requires that one ignores fourteen centuries of Islamic jihad against the West, a war of conquest and colonization ratified by centuries of Islamic theology and jurisprudence. Indeed, what we call Islamic radicals are in fact Islamic traditionalists; it is the so-called “moderates” — those wanting to compromise Islam so it can coexist with Western ideas such as secular government, separation of church and state, and human rights — who are the radicals and innovators.
The terrorists are simply fulfilling the traditional and orthodox command of their religion to battle the infidels who resist the revelation of Mohammed and the global socio-political order mandated by Islam.
Listen to one of the most respected and influential of Muslim clerics, Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, on the legitimacy of jihad:
(Excerpt) Read more at victorhanson.com ...
Char :)
bttt
Victor Davis Hanson - always a pleasure.
It's why they don't fight fair. They blow up women and children and the unarmed. Even in a fight, they have to cheat. Cheating is the only way they can win. Flea market carpet merchants who want to push their way into the modern world with cash... and kill us if we won't accept them. The war on terror is personal.
In any conflict it's a good idea to take seriously the motives the enemy professes and not rationalize or explain them away in terms of your own cultural assumptions.
By none other than the G8. Mr. President: wake up. Another $3 billion to the Palestinian Arabs will just fund their murderous schemes. We can be humane about this, but eliminate third world immigration; deport Muslims now; and most of all: seal our borders.
While you're at it, please cease the "Religion of Peace" mantra.
More than anything else: win the war now, not after our lifetimes. Let the war be fought today by us, not our grand children. We can win in a few weeks if we fight like our ancestors did during WWII. If we don't, we may lose not just the hollow, multicultural ideals of WWII's victors, but the freedoms they defended as well. There won't be a west to be "tolerant" if we continue down the path we are today.
We have to get over this notion that there is a such thing as 'moderate Islam'.
If there were such a thing, we'd be unable to turn on the TV without seeing them showering damnation on the terrorists.
Because we don't, and because they don't, the only logical conclusion is that all of Islam is corrupt.
If you doubt me in the least, do you not believe that if the MSM could find ONE moderate Islamist they'd not have him on the air 24/7?
bump
"They tell us over and over that they are waging jihad in order to establish the global hegemony of Islam, and we tell ourselves that these Muslims don't understand their own religion. Millions and millions of Muslims all over the world cheer for the jihadists and support them materially and psychologically, millions idolize bin Laden and celebrate the murder of Westerners, but we tell ourselves that they are a minority of confused souls whose minds have been addled by poverty or autocracy or anger over the Palestinians."
I UNDERSTAND ISLAM. ISLAM WANTS ME DEAD. ISLAM IS TO ME WHAT HITLER WAS TO THE JEWS. ISLAM IS THE FINAL SOLUTION. IS ANYONE LISTENING?
The root cause of terrorism is the Koran.
The koran is the receipe book, the pot is in the mosque, the stirrers are the clerics.
Bogus essay. We are not at war with Islam and Muslims, but with terrorists.
History doesn't support your hypothesis.
It's interesting that you'd contradict such an accomplished historian as VDH. Your name does have 'Jihad' in it, after all.
You can stand with an academic if you want to. I'll stand with our American leadership in a time of war.
"We are not at war with Islam and Muslims"
But they are at war with us.
Reading VDH is like reading Atlas Shrugged. He observes reality and states what it is, unflinchingly.
What if they're confused, as VDH clearly argues. Are you prepared to support them even if they're wrong? Maybe they need to know that we support a more stringent approach. Are you suggesting that the war shouldn't be fought stringently? It sure sounds like you are. Are you prepared to lose the war because we weren't willing to take it up another level?
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