In October 2001, I wrote the following: “Having thus identified the enemy, we will be flirting with a world war between Islam and the West, which we must not allow to happen………..our ideological enemy is an extreme sect of radical Islam, not the Muslim religion, the leaders of which should loudly condemn the barbarians who perverted their faith. They will have many sympathizers in the mainstream Muslim faith, however, and the leaders of the nation-states populated by those of this faith must understand that it is time for them to step forward and join the community of civilized nations in ending this perversion of their religion once and for all. This will be very difficult, because by so doing they will be exposed to instability in their own regimes, and it will test every skill we and our allies possess to see it through.”
Obviously, the jury is still out, and I continue to believe that responsible Muslims will step forward but, in the wake of the recent bombings in London and Egypt, the pressure has reached a point where we can no longer simply allow hope to continue to overcome experience. I am beginning to hear some faint noises in this direction, but nothing of the volume and weight that will be necessary and nothing from those whose regimes are at risk from the potential backlash. This is where we are and this is what we should demand. The Islamic Reformation has begun, slowly but surely, and it may require 100 years to complete (Christianity’s, at least the violent part, lasted over 200 years), but nothing less than the complete rejection, including the equivalent of excommunication, by mainstream Islam of those who directly or indirectly engage in or support Islamofacism and its terrorist methodology should be acceptable.
In this war, achieving this level of moral clarity has been problematic for the West, particularly in continental Europe. It is difficult to sustain the moral clarity necessary for anti-appeasement when you no longer understand or believe in the core cultural convictions of your heritage. Such is the damage that has been wrought by a couple of generations of the moral hollowing effect of relativism and multi-culturalism.
Kathleen Parker has written a provocative essay headlined, “If Islam is not the problem, then what, pray tell, is?”, in which she identifies massive global denial in our unwillingness to frame the terror issue the way we should: demanding answers of Islam. Zero tolerance should be the policy here, according to Parker, and I agree. We Americans rightly pride ourselves in our tolerance, which is a cornerstone of our creed, and which is why we have difficulty with condemning another creed. But our Constitution is not a suicide pact, and we should demand that moderate Muslims, including those in Europe, clean up their own perverse elements by eliminating, not simply condemning, the bad actors, cleaning out the mosques, and destroying all known Islamist cells, or we should do it for them. Enough is enough.
