A big problem is that folks (such as Joe Lieberman, this morning, on Face the Nation, I believe it was) continually refer to Islamic terrorists as “radicalized Muslims” who somehow are perverting the religion when, in fact, they are being quite faithful to the Koran. Many Westerners (at least in the U.S.) who reach out with a call for diversity and religious freedom don’t understand this yet.

Jihads will keep more or less periodically recurring (as they have been for centuries with less powerful weapons and means) because it is only the hypocritical Muslims that are compatible with a western style democracy. True believers, the idealists, the faithful, will recognize the legitimate call to intolerance, tyranny and violence.

“War on terrorism” was a euphemism for something I really would rather not think about.

The Examiner and the Washington Times are two examples that come immediately to mind…

Better than the newspapers though is that we have groups of stalwarts who blog such as Gateway Pundit for instance…

There was a story several years ago about a moderate mosque, I think in San Francisco or at least in the west coast, where the moderate imam was driven out. I think this is the case and it illustrates the role of the Saudis, in particular. That part of the story is in the WSJ article. Unfortunately, it is no longer available.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Muslim apostate from Somalia, was astounded by one aspect of western culture in particular: That in the West, new (to the west) ideas are studied, criticized and picked apart with ruthless efficiency. No other cultural heritage has this, essentially scientific, tradition (which we got from the Ancient Greeks), which is also the reason that Christianity is quite compatible with a modern, scientific society – it was developed at a time when Greek thinking was dominant.

The key task therefore is for us in the west to continue this tradition and apply it to Islam at any and every opportunity. Most Muslims do not study the Koran or even speak the language in which it is written. Study is not encouraged. Muslims rely solely on what their local Imam tells them. If he tells them nice things – judging that they are not ready for the ‘real stuff’ – they learn nice things. If the Imam judges they are ready for the ‘versus of the sword’ etc, as Hasan clearly was, then they are encouraged to hate the infidel as per the Koranic admonitions.

We in the west must therefore use western thinking to expose the real Islam – including the hatred and the violence – to all Muslims. Give them the opportunity and motivation to turn away and take the power away from the ‘controversial’ Imams.

-Hasan’s victims,

-The future victims of future terrorists who take encouragement from Hasan’s media-leveraged success as a terrorist, and

-American Muslims who oppose the jihadists.

The official and media political correctness that ignorantly broadbrushes Islam as “a religion of peace” makes the problem worse. If you are an American Muslim who, like most Americans, wants to live peacefully and be left alone, and your govt is ignoring reality while the jihadists are threatening you if you oppose them, are you going to go out of your way to help the US govt? It’s like fighting the Mafia, or counterinsurgency warfare: if we want the cooperation of the reasonable people we must first protect them from the thugs, and the first step to doing this is to acknowledge important distinctions. Instead, by making clear that our priority is to avoid offending anyone, we transmit an implied message to our Muslim allies that they are on their own.

Islam isn’t a religion of peace. It’s an empire of competing factions, some of which are violent and have abhorrent doctrines that we should oppose as we oppose communism and fascism. Our officials should explain why radical Islam is incompatible with our beliefs. Their repetition of condescending PC platitudes about how the jihadists aren’t real Muslims and so forth shows only that our leaders refuse to deal in the reality that is obvious to many ordinary people. It shows weakness. It encourages further attacks against us by enemies who perceive our weakness and understand how to use our legal and media institutions against us.