"Boots on the Ground" and Other Fantasies About "Radicalization"

Your forgiveness if I repeat prior writings too much.

For many among us whatever we do in response to the 1400-year war Islam has conducted against the West will "only serve to produce more radicals and more jihadis." I won't bother with lots of links to such arguments, you can find them just about anywhere online, on TV, in the dying print media, and, of course, emanating from the decrepit institutions known as centers of higher learning.

Even more troubling, we find people in leadership positions who reportedly say stupidities such as, "If you kill your enemies, they win." That quote alone, if accurate, just might make Canada's PM Justin Bieber Trudeau heir to the title of The Stupidest Western Leader--at last, somebody provides fierce competition for Merkel, Kerry, and Obama!

One of my favorite arguments is that if we put Western "boots on the ground" in the Muslim world, we only generate more Islamist terror and hatred. Hmmm . . . Another old time favorite, of course, is that Guantanamo serves as a "recruiting symbol" for jihadis. How about that? One of Obama's favorites is that all of this "extremist behavior" by the JV Team of ISIS and others comes as a reaction to the Crusades. OK, sure . . .

These idiocies, of course, are mere nuggets mined from a very rich lode of idiocy, to wit, the West must not only not insult or offend Islam in any manner, but must gracefully accept the insults, hatred, and death that Islam hurls our way. We must ignore what they say they're going to do to us, and believe instead that they will do with us as we do with them, despite the fact that they do with us exactly as they said they would--ask those Christians on that Libyan beach or the ones at the Easter fair in Lahore.

"Boots on the ground," huh? What a stupid phrase; one repeated ad nauseam by progressives who want to sound military savvy--kinda like "assault" rifle . . ..

Has anybody noticed that Islam has many more "boots on the ground" in the West than vice-versa? We find many, many more mosques, centers of "Islamic learning," halal butcheries, etc., in the West than we find churches, synagogues, etc., in the Muslim world. While the UN and the world go into paroxysms of rage when a few Jews build houses in the "Occupied Territories," because, of course, Jews have no right to live among Muslims, literally millions of Muslims have and continue to move into Europe and other Western countries. The Muslim world murders and drives into exile Jews and Christians from their ancient homes, but the West must accept millions of Muslim "refugees" and migrants.

Something is off here. What could it be?

It seems that the Muslim world does not fear inflaming us when ISIS, AQ, etc., declare "no go" zones or set off bombs in our cities or engage in other forms of mass murder. We all must show great care after each and every one of these atrocities so as not to engage in a "backlash" against the very Muslim communities clearly supporting these actions -- e.g., the Paris killers got critical support from the Muslim community in Brussels, including hiding them from police. We must march for peace, while the Muslim world celebrates acts of "war" against concert-goers, airline travelers, and train passengers. Our children must learn tolerance and of the beauties of Islam, while their kids practice donning suicide vests and eating sweets in celebration of some or another atrocity.

Yes, something is off, here. Again, we ask, what could it be?

Not rocket science to answer that. The cause of Islamic "radicalization" is not Guantanamo, Western troops, or women in short skirts. The radicalization, as the word "radical" makes clear, comes from the root of Islam, the Quran. This basic text of Islam is held to be, quite literally, the precise word of Allah as revealed to Mohammed. No deviation is allowed or accepted; it is the Final Word. Period. No further revelations follow. We see, therefore, the rage with which mainstream Islam treats the Ahmadiyya sect which holds to subsequent "revelations" that call for more compassion and understanding. When I served in Pakistan, a major center of the Ahmadiyya faith, attacks on and killings of Ahmadis were common. Jews and Christians, likewise, come in for Islamic hatred and rage, because they do not accept the Quran as the word of God or Mohammed as his Prophet. Forcible conversion, slavery, and death serve as the prescribed remedies for this blasphemy. It is right there in the Quran, aka, the book of instructions on "How to be a Muslim."

Once again: It is Islam from whence the threat comes.