Can the West defeat the Islamist threat? Here are ten reasons why not

Times Online ^ | September 09, 2006 | David Selbourne

[Iris7]

LET US SUPPOSE, for the sake of argument, that the war declared by al-Qaeda and other Islamists is under way. Let us further suppose that thousands of “terrorist” attacks carried out in Islam’s name during the past decades form part of this war; and that conflicts that have spread to 50 countries and more, taking the lives of millions — including in inter-Muslim blood-shedding — are the outcome of what Osama bin Laden has called “conducting jihad for the sake of Allah”.

If such war is under way, there are ten good reasons why, as things stand, Islam will not be defeated in it.

1) The first is the extent of political division in the non-Muslim world about what is afoot. Some reject outright that there is a war at all; others agree with the assertion by the US President that “the war we fight is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century”. Divided counsels have also dictated everything from “dialogue” to the use of nuclear weapons, and from reliance on “public diplomacy” to “taking out Islamic sites”, Mecca included. Adding to this incoherence has been the gulf between those bristling to take the fight to the “terrorist” and those who would impede such a fight, whether from domestic civil libertarian concerns or from rivalrous geopolitical calculation.

[stultorum]

Don't forget DoubleThink, or the idea of holding two contraddictory ideas in one's mind and accepting both of them at the same time. I see many cases of DoubleThink almost daily.

Then there is PC, which is nothing more than a euphemism for old-fashioned FEAR.

Take care.

[nutmeg]

bookmark

[stultorum]

"May I welcome you to the Free Republic?

Yes and thank you for the welcome.

[Iris7]

I think the "hispanic" business is a bit in jest.

Myself I know at least one thing. There are two kinds of men. One sort loves liberty. The other sort wants to be a slave, not a weak and helpless slave but instead a powerful slave, and to be loved and feared simultaneously by all he meets. One seeks freedom and accepts the resulting responsibility but the other demands submission of all others in both body and soul.

[Screaming_Gerbil]

What I am really inclined to believe is that God has allowed this rise of Islam to happen in the same way that God has in the Old Testament allowed the enemies of Israel to rise up and fight against israel when God's chosen people fell too far into sin.

Much of America has gotten soft and fat and lazy and forgot about God. We don't need Him - we're rich and powerful, and we did it all by ourselves. So God's answer to America's sins is allowing this rise of Islam.

I personally think that Islam will be very hard to defeat.

It seems to be growing rapidly. Why?

I would guess that it gives poor and hopeless people a vision and a purpose of the here and now that modern Christianity does not. Islam seems to me to be a religion of fighting rather than submission. And I think as we see more people who are born into poverty and unable to get jobs that support themselves and their families in the cities of America (and Western Europe), we are going to see Jihad on our own soil, as they have in Western Europe.

[Iris7]

You describe the deeper problem we face. In the end success against moslem aggression depends on changing our own ways and our own hearts. A Shakespeare had Caesar put it "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves...."

I think it is wiser to concentrate our attention at this time on those domestic enemies who enable our foreign enemies. I do not seek the destruction of those people but their individual rejection of past error. Some will come to repentance and God will do the rest.

The road ahead is long and will be often hard. Our people have willingly become corrupt. We can fix this. The Divine help is freely given to all who open their hearts to Him. "Seek, and ye shall find" is not a metaphor but concrete reality and is reality just as truly as is a rifle's bullet.