[Invisible Gorilla]

I find it unaccountable that those on the side of liberal civilization would HELP with this crucial enemy stratagem, and at the same time undercut those striving for liberalism within the Muslim world, often at great personal risk -- certainly as much risk as Natansky or Walesa or Solzhenitsyn faced in the Communist world in their times. Those fighting Islamism from within Islam deserve support, not nullification.

For your analogy to pass muster, Natansky, Walesa and Solzhenitsyn would have been striving for liberalism within the Communist world. They weren't, they were seeking the end of Communism.

[Stultis]

For your analogy to pass muster, Natansky, Walesa and Solzhenitsyn would have been striving for liberalism within the Communist world. They weren't, they were seeking the end of Communism.

Those are one and the same thing. Communism is inherently totalitarian. Liberalism (in the classical sense) is the polar opposite of totalism. Therefore "striving for liberalism" within the Communist world was striving to destroy Communism. The two cannot coexist. By the same token Islamism is inherently totalitarian (a totalistic system) and cannot coexist with liberalism, or even with partial reform, such as the liberation of women for instance. The Islamists certainly realize this. That's why they seek to destroy liberalism in any form, both as imported from the "West" and from within Islam.

All I'm asking is that we don't HELP them in that effort!