If America is going to win the fight against radical Islam, moderate Muslims will have to lead the charge—and explain to the rest of us how we can help.
President Obama warns against “extremism.” Former Vice President Dick Cheney declaims against “terrorists.” But they hardly ever bark the essential word, the almost always absent critical adjective: Muslim. Almost all the terrorist and extremist violence in the world today is committed by Muslims—and in most instances, the victims are Muslims themselves. What’s afoot here is Muslim extremism—despite the fact that the great majority of Muslims aren’t radicals and condemn terrorism.
President Obama got somewhat more specific in his press appearance Thursday regarding the Christmas bombing attempt. He said that the United States was “at war against al Qaeda.” Indeed, we are, and al Qaeda is surely the main Muslim terrorist organization we are fighting. But it is not the only one. Many of the Muslim terrorist groups around the world are their own bosses, particularly in Asia and also in the Middle East. Nonetheless, he still avoided the Muslim nature of the problem.
The great majority of sensible and moderate Muslims must take up operational and actual arms against the terrorists. It can’t be just rhetoric, which is the only weapon of most moderate Muslim groups right now.
The omission of the word “Muslim” usually stems from political correctness, the desire not to offend. On most occasions, this gloss does no great harm and can be overlooked. But the failure to nail the problem squarely by name causes grave difficulties: It impedes the process of finding realistic solutions. Specifically, it leads Washington to think of American solutions to terrorism more so than Muslim ones. It puts the greatest onus on American resources and actions, on our values and our philosophies—rather than on the great majority of moderate Muslims, their values, their religion, their culture, their concrete actions, and their getting involved at the ground level in the mud and muck. If the battle against Muslim terrorism is to be won, moderate Muslims will have to do the heavy lifting, and explain to us how we can best help them. If Americans and Westerners continue to take the lead, it will remain an “us vs. them” war. If Muslims take the lead, it will be “them vs. them,” co-religionists battling co-religionists, not “infidel and oppressive” outsiders battling “victimized” Muslims. Effective military force, of course, will be needed to weaken the fanatics and provide security. But the support of the great majority of Muslims is an even more essential ingredient for success, one that can be garnered only by their fellow believers both in the U.S. and abroad.
• Gallery: Ranking the Terror Hubs • Gerald Posner: Did Pakistani Spies Help the CIA Bomber? Not a week goes by, it seems, without Muslims blowing up other Muslims, and often themselves in the process. Dominating their co-religionists appears to be the top priority of fanatics. When the opportunity presents itself, they will also kill infidels in America, London, Madrid, Indonesia, and anywhere else they can. It’s astonishing to count the number and variety of insurrections, wars, civil wars, incidents, and insurgencies Muslims have ignited. The list includes Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Chechnya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Gaza, the West Bank, and on and on.
Of the terrorist killings and maimings that have taken place over the last three years, over 90 percent have been Muslim on Muslim, Shiite on Sunni, Sunni on Sunni, or Shiite on Shiite, with rare exceptions. Most of these slaughters have religious, cultural, and historical causes. But wherever the fanatics lodge themselves firmly in power, as the Taliban did in Afghanistan, they will try to practice the totalitarianism of Hitler and Stalin. Their rule is the end of hope for women, the end of freedom for all, except themselves—and the institutionalization of corruption and cruelty, which they rationalize with their interpretation of the Koran. They’ve tried to impose totalitarianism in Iran, but haven’t succeeded so far—because the Iranian people have fought back. And if you listen to the fanatics’ rhetoric, they plan to move on to the rest of the world and apply the same principles. They are Muslim fanatics. The culprits are not Hasidic Jews running amok around the world or Tea-baggers bent on replanting Christianity among the heathen.
Muslim terrorists are the main threat to international and American security. They are the ones most likely to impose totalitarianism on their fellow Muslims, and the ones most likely to use weapons of mass destruction. Muslim governments surely understand deterrence and know that if they use WMDs to attack others, the United States and other nations will destroy them. These governments, I believe, will be deterred once they are sure of devastating Western responses. The terrorists themselves are another matter.
Thus, the overriding national-security question is: What should Muslims and non-Muslims do about this mortal threat? The primary answer is that the great majority of sensible and moderate Muslims must take up operational and actual arms against the terrorists. It can’t be just rhetoric, which is the only weapon of most moderate Muslim groups right now. They give speeches and issue fatwas condemning terrorism. (Notably, after the September 11 attacks, leaders from the Muslim Brotherhood, Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan, and others in a joint statement condemned “in the strongest terms, the incidents, which are against all human and Islamic norms.”)
View as Single Page 12 Back to Top January 7, 2010 | 10:54pm Facebook | Twitter | Digg | | Emails | print Moderate Muslims, President Obama, Radical Islam, The Muslim Brotherhood, Christmas Bomb Attempt, September 11, Sunni, Shiite (–) Show Replies Collapse Replies Sort Up Sort Down sort by date: 123 JackDavis1
Are you JUST waking up to this, Leslie? I hope you're not receiving any remuneration for stating what is so patently obvious. If you're taking money for the drivel you write, you should be sued for theft of services.
Oh peleeze! stop insulting the world with you Zionist conspiracy, It should be taboo for Jews to comment on situations like this! This is what the jihad is all about; people like you just make it worse!
Get help, get it now...!
Who care's if it's a jew a christian or a muzzlum who blow's the whistle on you cockroaches....it needed to be said. We already know you muzzlums are the problem. Your the only people who hate the civilized world cuz it's in your stupid kuran....hate hate hate is what izzlam is all about....blow smoke up someone else's ass stupid....you scum are going to play hell doing away with the civilized world....you need a little pig blood splatered on your face....go to hell.....
I've been asking this question for years, while, at the same time being thankful that they don't go do or to door like those annoying Christians.
I'am pretty much convinced all religion is BS....but Izzlam is the only so-called religion or whatever it is that commit's wholesale mayhem on the civilized world and themselve's....it is the only group that blow themselves up so they can die and get into heaven immedialty and get the 72 virgins....everyone knows that's the guarntee to izzlamick heaven to die killing infidels....you muzzlums better find another blog to spread your BS....
Great questions. Let's turn this around. What about those of us -- practicing and cultural Christians -- who live passively with the fundamental, radical Christians who are at war with the Muslims and use our countries resources against peaceful people? Where are our schools to help the brainwashed young Christians who have been taught that Muslims are evil and out to kill them? Who is pointing out their Bible also preaches to eradicate non-believers and that they are creating the same fear? Why do we not shun those who believe the best goal is to provoke an earth-killing Armageddon? Where are the outcries of moderate Christian leaders and average people when the adjective 'Muslim' is used as a slur from mainstream Christian political candidates? Where are the apologies and withdrawing funds from Israel's horrific acts against Muslims in Palestine? There are some of us who speak out against Christian fundamentalism. Christian bullying and hatred are part of the cycle. The two religious fundamentalist groups are two diseased human tribes who really are aiming against each other. Why do we allow their hatred to dominate so much of our fate? All of us who want the best for our children need to rise up against this fundamentalist hatred in our every day conversations, in our own lives.
Yes, I agree, and I have to say that I am not anti Christian. Every time someone wants to tie some responsibility for hatred on Christians, they are pegged anti Christian. Christianity is based on faith alone and therefore is inherently intolerant of anyone or any faith who disagree with them. Christians never want to accept responsibility for the Christian Inquisition or the Christian Crusades; accepting responsibility for that terror would destroy their faith and faith is all they have and history challenges it. The symbol of Christianity is the cross, a device for execution and violent death; Christians prefer the symbol of the cross, for the most part, and in doing so reject a compassionate symbol for Christianity, the fish. "Onward Christian Soldiers" is a battle cry and not a plea for peace or compassion. President Bush's Freudian slip calling his religious wars a Crusade is a prime example of the unconsciousness of Christian brutality; President Bush also apparently told Muslin leaders that God (his Christian God) had chosen him to invade Iraq. Really bad Karma and identifying America's wars in the Mideast as, America's Religious Wars. It is one thing to say that Muslim terrorism can only be stopped by Muslim people condemning Muslim terror, but with America's Christian leadership fueling the fires against Islam it is ludicrous to blame responsible Muslims for the problem. Bin Laden's terrorist attack was motivated by President Bush Sr. establishing a military base in Muslim Holy Land, Saudi Arabia (see US 911 Commission Report), yet I have not heard any American Christian or political leaders even mention bin Laden's motivation. Certainly, bin Laden's motivation cannot justify his Terrorism but when the cause is known, then it is logical that to fight Muslim terrorism the cause should be eliminated in some way. Christianity cannot be absolved from responsibility for the Inquisition, the Crusades, or Muslim terrorism. Several years ago, Muslim leaders reached out to Western Christian leaders and received no response from the Pope on anyone else. Pick up any newspaper and read about Rev. Pat Robertson's condemnation of Islam in its entirety. America simply refuses to accept moral responsibility for the current warfare; war in Afghanistan and Iraq is immoral and the wars are religious wars and wars for the purpose of gaining economic influence and control of oil in the Mideast. The Mideast is predominately Muslim and Muslims are not ignorant spear throwing savages. American Christianity is amoral when it comes to America's predatory capitalistic economy and the Project for the New American Century's concept of using America's super power to corporate America's benefit. It ill behooves American Christians to not put the blame for terrorism on Islam; "Physician, first heal thyself".
Yes, the Muslims are not ignorant. Which is why they were rivals of the West and often its superior in conquest and empire management until the industrial revolution and why, with trillions in oil revenue and the diminishment of the West, the ummah is ascendant. Its true the West wants the oil it identified as valuable to use the machines it also invented. You know that feminism, gay-rights and tolernace of minorities all needs oil and a Western army, don't you? Or, do you?
"Every time someone wants to tie some responsibility for hatred on Christians, they are pegged anti Christian. Christianity is based on faith alone and therefore is inherently intolerant of anyone or any faith who disagree with them." How can you say you are not anti-Christian and then level ridiculous and untrue charges like this against Christians? The two cannot be reconciled. One thing I note is that most who publicly show they are anti Christian (as you and the poster you agree with have done) is that they are completely misinformed about Christianity. I can only speculate that you form your incorrect opinion from examples of flawed human behavior and not from Christ or what he taught.
This guy is Jewish, get it?
The Crusades were a counterattack against four centuries of Muslim aggression and wars of conquest. It's a shame they were not successful.
You need to read up on history pal....the crusades were in response to izzlamik hordes trying to take over civilized countries....dumb ass....
Thanks for this Veronicaxy. Your words expressed how I also feel about the situation. Particularly when taking into past Christian fundamentialist terrorism plots such as the OK city bombing, blowing up of clinics (even if one doesn't agree with abortion rights, unless you are a wing-nut, you should agree that this is wrong!), just as two examples.
One guy, condemned by the civilized (Christian) world is not the equivalent of the culture of hate and violence spewed forth from the Muslim world. Are you afraid of the Muslims, Genni? Is that why you are trying to appease them, by spouting this jejune moral equivalency?
A handful of wingnuts who were condemned by every Christian leader and every Christian I know, and you see a fundamentalist jihad. Pure moonshine.
Drivel. Moral equivalency run amok. Israeli and the Palestinians are fighting over a small piece of land, but Israelis and Jews are not waging global jihad, not bombing places in NY, Madrid, London, etc., etc., etc. Israelis and Jews are not trying to impose their religious beliefs on anyone else, or establish some 8th century Caliphate. Christian fundamentalists are not bombing and murdering on the unbelievable scale that Muslims are. The monstrous actions and rhetoric of so many Muslims defames the faith; that we are wary of Islam is only natural, given its propensity for violence. So, stfu, Veronicaxy and stop apologizing for the hate and murder originating in the Muslim world.
"Christian fundamentalists are not bombing and murdering on the unbelievable scale that Muslims are." Thanks for bringing this up, a perfect example. George Bush, a proud Christian Fundamentalist used a now admitted ruse, WMD, to invade a Muslim country that was not a of hot bed of terrorism until after we invaded (the hotbeds would be Pakistan and Saudi Arabia): Iraqi citizens victims of violent deaths due to the war, by the most conservative World Health Organization estimates 104,000 to 223,000. 9/11 victims: 2,976. If you were a Muslim, what would be your take on this? If this was turned around and some radical Christian crazies that you'd have nothing to do with killed 3K Muslims, would it be acceptable to lose hundreds of thousands of innocent citizens (women, children, men) in Muslim response? No, the crazies should be treated as they are, a sad minority, not representative of the group.
Veronicaxy is point on. We who are not burdened by any "religion" are the victims to the war the religious zealots are bringing to our countries. It is time that we speak up against all the religions who are bringing down upon our world "end times" that they all pray for. What is the difference between Islan offering "72 virgins" upon death or Christians promising "eternal life with passed loved ones"? Not one iota - they are a threat to us all.
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