The enemy is militant Islam

Submitted by Surak (United States), Jun 20, 2008 at 14:34

Great article, great comments. All of the discussion here is head and shoulders above anything coming out of the administration or the pretend hawks, i.e., partisan hacks, who ignore the evisceration of Christian Serbia and Jewish Israel, the ceding of land to the enemy cost-free, the Secretary of State meeting with Hizb'ulah representatives, etc.

The enemy is not "radical extremists" - agreed. Extreme Buddhists? Extreme vegetarians? How about radical Muslims? How do we know what is radical?

That's my objection to Dr. Pipes' neologism "Islamism". Aside from the awkwardness of turning a noun into a noun, imagine the analogous "Christianityism". What in the world do these words mean? Taking the religion seriously, I guess. If so, do we then have a problem with the religion itself? What does Sura 9 of the Qur'an mean, when it says that non-Muslims have three choices - convert, submit, or die? Might it just mean exactly what it says?

Still, I'm reluctant to make an enemy out of 1.2 billion people. Eventually, we may have to - just as we fought Germany, Italy and Japan despite the presence of good Germans, Italians and Japanese. I propose the more practical name "militant Islam" for the enemy. It describes exactly what is objectionable - not belief, but behavior. I don't care what my neighbor thinks - but if he believes he must kill anyone who disagrees with him, he must be stopped.

Is all of Islam militant? That is for Muslims to decide. Unlike Jews and Christians, their history gives them little experience with practicing belief peacefully under the rule of non-believers.

I do know that I am concerned not just with things going boom, but also the cultural jihad - see Mark Steyn's "America Alone" and his description of the inexorable Islamization of Europe. I don't want that to happen here. For the sake of the survival of Western civilization, I would like to see America and the rest of the West ban Muslim immigration and ban the veil in public places.

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