Who says that terrorism, or even the threat of it, is not effective. The radical fundamental Islamists of the world need only express dissatisfaction to send the “leaders” of the west stumbling over each other to get in front of the camera to condemn whatever offense irritated the Islamists this time, hoping to avoid the wrath of the world’s terrorists.
When Baptist minister Terry Jones, Dove World Outreach Center, Gainesville, FL threatened to burn Korans in public on 11 Sept, American politicians came out of the woodwork to condemn the idea of burning the muslim holy book. President Obama himself has weighed in on this “crisis,” saying, "I just hope he understands that what he's proposing to do is completely contrary to our values," Obama said in an ABC interview. He called the plan a "recruitment bonanza for Al Qaeda." Mr. Obama did not elaborate on what might we might do to reduce Al Qaeda recruitment, but it’s good to know that he at least considers increasing recruitment a bad thing. President Obama earlier called the plan a "stunt" and urged the pastor to abandon it.
Other American leaders, from Secretary of State (for now) Hillary Clinton to Defense Secretary Gates to General David Petraeus have rushed to the microphones to condemned Reverend Jones’ threatened Koran burning. Presidential Press Secretary, the hapless dimwit Robert Gibbs, called Reverend Jones’ plan a “monumentally terrible idea.”
While American leaders hustle to the microphones to attempt to mollify the “Muslim World,” Old friend Imam Rauf is still planning to erect his 9/11 Victory Mosque near the site of the former World Trade Center. Responding to public outrage and demands that he move the planned mosque (though not abandon it), he has essentially threatened that attempts to move the mosque away from the Ground Zero site will incite Muslim violence against the United States. "The headlines in the Muslim world will be that Islam is under attack," he said. “If you don't do this right, anger will explode in the Muslim world," Imam Rauf predicted that the reaction could be more furious than the eruption of violence following the 2005 publication of Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, Fox News reported.
There you have it. If they don’t get their way, they will riot, burn cars, behead journalists, stone women, detonate bombs in crowded places, hijack airplanes, bomb airplanes, fly airplanes into buildings, attack Olympic athletes. You can fill in the blank with whatever form or radical Muslim violence most fits your taste.
Until today, while dealing with violent Muslim “religious” fundamentalists has been difficult and sometimes deadly, we have been dealing with a group that is confined to the use of conventional weapons. They do not even have access to aircraft that they have not first hijacked. But the whole game will change the instant Iran becomes a nuclear power.
Until today, while dealing with violent Muslim “religious” fundamentalists has been difficult and sometimes deadly, we have been dealing with a group that is confined to the use of conventional weapons. They do not even have access to aircraft that they have not first hijacked. But the whole game will change the instant Iran becomes a nuclear power.
While we can wince and feel uneasy about the horrific violence perpetrated by Muslims all over the world in the name of the Religion of Peace, we have been relatively safe from, if offended by, that violence. But what happens when the Iranians, and by extension their allies in the “Muslim World” have nuclear weapons, what will the reaction of American politicians be when they are offended by some Baptist minister? Will we see our President further pressuring Israel to greater and greater concessions to the Palestinians? Will we see him agreeing to a “limited establishment of Shari’a Law in Dearborn, Michigan, to satisfy the demands of the “Muslim World”?
The Muslim World understands one thing: strength. They understood that when King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, Los Reyes Catolicos, crushed the Caliphate of Cordova in January, 1492 and cast the Moors from Spain. They understood that when Israeli tanks rolled up to the Suez Canal in June, 1967, and they understood it when U.S. armed forces streamed into Baghdad in 2003. But what the Muslim World understands better than anything else is weakness. Every time they threaten violence and see western leaders cower before their threats, they are convinced they have a winning hand. That, more than anything else, serves to increase al-Qaeda recruitment.
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