THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 47, February 18, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
THE REALITY OF ISLAM
By S. T. Karnick
THE "POLITICALLY CORRECT" PHILOSOPHY OF MULTICULTURALISM: ANOTHER NAME FOR WESTERN
DEMORALIZATION & ONE OF THE
GREATEST DIFFICULTIES IN THE WEST'S CONFRONTATION WITH ISLAM DURING THE PAST DECADE -- FAILURE TO
RECOGNIZE THE TRUE NATURE OF ISLAM & THE VIOLENCE THAT IS INHERENT IN ISLAMIC CULTURE -- FAILURE TO
RECOGNIZE THE TRUE NATURE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION, & THE GREAT GOOD THAT IS INHERENT IN WESTERN CULTURE
-- WESTERN MULTICULTURALISTS' INABILITY OR UNWILLINGNESS TO COMPREHEND THE REAL RELATION
OF ISLAM & ISLAMIC CULTURE TO JIHADISM & TERRORISM -- THE PSYCHOLOGICAL DENIAL & BLINDNESS OF WESTERN
ELITES REGARDING THE SERIOUS THREAT THAT THE ISLAMIC CHALLENGE POSES TO OUR WAY OF LIFE IN THE WEST
FULL STORY:
One of the greatest difficulties in the West's confrontation with Islam in the past decade has been our failure to recognize
the true nature of Islam. This is a direct consequence of our failure to recognize the true nature of our own civilization, and
the great good that is inherent in it.
The modern West has been loath to view itself even as a civilization worthy of respect, much less the best that mankind
has had to offer, which it surely is despite its many imperfections.
That has made it difficult or impossible for those in the West who adhere to this philosophy to criticize other cultures and
civilizations, a notion that has come to be called multiculturalism, but is in fact simply demoralization.
The open confrontation with Islam, however, does appear to have brought some people to the realization, however
reluctant, that the West has its virtues and other cultures have their faults.
That is a very good development indeed.
On January 23, 2008, Carol Iannone (not one of the demoralized ones) superbly expresses this point of view in a post on
National Review Online's "Phi Beta Cons" blog, in a summary of the ideas in Stephen Coughlin's master's thesis,
To Our Great Detriment': Ignoring What Extremists Say about Jihad, submitted to the National Defense
Intelligence College:
"I can see why it got him into trouble. He frankly declares
that this [presidential] administration has been wrong on
the relation of Islam to jihadism and terrorism. . . . Coughlin
points out that, on the basis of very little, Bush, Rice, and
other administration people blithely declare Islam a religion
of peace that has been hijacked by a few violent extremists
for their own agenda, an agenda which they insist has
nothing to do with Islam. They ignore all the evidence
from Islamic sources that support violence in the name of
spreading or defending the faith and bypass the professed
and frequently stated aims of the jihadists."
Iannone summarizes what appears to be Coughlin's view:
"[This] view says that there is indeed a problem with Islam
itself, that, even if only a minority of Muslims will ever take
up jihad, most Muslims know that that is mandated by their
religion and they do support it in belief and sometimes
financially. The term Islamo-Fascism is really a euphemism
for those who wish to deny or ignore the violence inherent
in Islam. This view sees that jihad has been a feature of
Islam from its beginnings and that martyrdom is honored
and rewarded in Islam. This view also finds that Islam may
well be in conflict with liberal [constitutional] democracy.
Muslims are told that they are meant to Islamicize the
countries they live in, through "peaceful" means if they can,
and violent means when necessary, and we already see signs
of this in Europe and America."
The Bush administration, then, has been grossly mistaken in thinking that radical Islam is an aberration and not central
to Islam:
"[Coughlin] says that we are hampered in dealing with the
enemy and in producing good intelligence for our strategic
plans because, instead of listening to what the enemy is
saying, we impose our own hopeful, optimistic kind of view
on the Islamic world, that everyone is really like us at heart
and that we will see this in the end."
I think that this is a very good analysis, and I am very glad that Carol has brought it to our attention.
Jihad, in fact, is the mirror image of Western demoralization. On the one hand, a civilization compelled to press its
fundamental beliefs on the entire world, and, on the other, a civilization that has, in great part, lost the will even to
defend itself.
The need to retain the delusion among Western elites is powerful, however, and, for his efforts to remove the scales from
their eyes, Coughlin was fired from his position on the U.S. military's Joint Staff. As Bill Gertz noted in the Washington
Times, January 4, 2008:
"The action followed a report in this space last week revealing
opposition to his work for the military by pro-Muslim officials
within the Office of Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England."
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
International Politics & World Disorder:
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
S. T. Karnick is Director of Publications for the Heartland Institute, Associate Fellow of the Sagamore Institute for Policy
Research, Editor of The American Culture, and a contributor to National Review Online. His writings appear
regularly in National Review, The Weekly Standard, The American Spectator, The National
Interest, The American Enterprise, Front Page Magazine, Books and Culture, Tech Central
Station, Christianity Today, Insight, The Washington Times, The Indianapolis Star,
The Washington Examiner, Chronicles, American Outlook, and numerous other publications.
Formerly, Karnick was Director of Publications for the Hudson Institute.
The foregoing article by S. T. Karnick was originally published in The American Culture, January 23, 2008.
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