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Can the West defeat the Islamist threat? Here are ten reasons why not
 David SelbourneLET 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 Islams 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. Continued at link; apparently baloney is still popular in Britain. Posted by: Snolutch Shiting8268 2006-09-10 |
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