George Rebane 

I’m reminded by today’s Stratfor bulletin of a recent comment on RR regarding Islam’s crusade against the West.  Buzzing out Stratfor’s report, I wound up on the INRA site (Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency) to read that “Over 70,000 students sign up for martyrdom operation list”.  To quote that comment, many good-hearted people continue to believe that “reaching out to moderate Muslims who also favor peace and wealth to war” is something that the West has not done, and because of that we have the problem of worldwide Islamic terror.  Many such people go on to “believe the war on terror should not be framed as between Muslims and the West, but between the primitive/extremists and the modern/moderates.”

Unfortunately, when it comes to terror and warfare, it only takes one to tango.  Anyone, not convinced that Islam is actively seeking to spread their Caliphate agenda, is not paying attention to what the Islamists at ALL levels are saying to us, to their children, and to each other.  The web is a rich resource of English-language Islamic sites that contain the up-to-date sentiments of their commentators, and translations of what their government and religious leaders are telling them.  It does not stretch credulity to understand that their sites in Arabic and Farsi are even more explicit about the Islamic vision of the future and the means to get there.  In this list one need not include the rabid sites published by the myriad of Islamic terrorist organizations.

The bottom line here is that there is no wishful conflict between Islam’s “primitive/extremists and the modern/moderates.”  The moderates are all silent in fear for their lives while quietly contributing to organizations that fan the flames.  The ‘Arab street’ remains, of course, overwhelmingly livid as reported by every western survey.  The Arab and Persian rulers are doing nothing to counter their zealots or their breeding grounds because they see a comfortable continuing role for themselves under any future Islamic world order. 

Some years back we held on to the hope that if we could just restrain them as long as it took to subvert Islam with western riches and culture, then their deadly ideology might die a historical and natural death.  And that still may be the way to win, but today we are in less of a position to attract them out of their madrasas by throwing money at them.  Meanwhile, the Muslim settlers in European cities silently continue to grow their cohesive communities, prepare for “martyrdom operations” while cowing their native populations.  (From our own history we recall the difference between the goals of immigrants and settlers.)  The Muslim presence in Europe is now at a level that no government dare mount a serious challenge to their unassimilating throngs.

To those who support terrorism, President Obama said yesterday, “We say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken. You cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.”  Another 70,000 young Muslims have just called us on that.  Muslims have joyously been giving their lives by the thousands while we lament the loss of every life.  It remains a burden on our own hopeful souls to demonstrate that this is not a clash of civilizations, and that we do indeed have the means and the will to defeat them.