Eye on the Middle East Jan/Feb 2006
“What’s it to me?” That’s a question repeatedly bandied about by Americans and people residing in the affluent zone we call the Western democracies. There’s plenty of “bread and circus” and little threat of being blown to bits in the streets by suicidal fanatics. Comfortable accommodations, personal privilege, easy money, and automated teller machines have made upward mobility in our plastic societies normal fare. So why rattle someone’s cage over what’s happening half a world away?
Here’s why.
On October 6, 2005, President George W. Bush made a historic speech that slid through the majority of newsrooms with scarcely a glance from the pundits and producers who determine what we commoners should be exposed to. It was historic because the president took the gloves off and described, in understandable terms, who and what the war on terror is about, how it affects you and me, and why we should be concerned. The speech’s importance will not diminish with the passing of time because it is fundamental to understanding present issues and future prospects.
President Bush described the force behind terrorism as “evil Islamic radicalism,” “militant Jihadism,” and “Islamo-fascism.” In other words, he called out the bad guys—Islamist imperialists—and told us what they are all about. They are driven by a “murderous ideology” that poses “the great challenge of our new century.” The worldview of these crusading knights of Muhammad parallels Communism. And, like the old Soviet commissars at the Kremlin in years past, these Islamists, to quote journalist Daniel Pipes, are “elitist, cold-blooded, totalitarian, and disdainful of free peoples.”1 Said Bush, “Its leaders pretend to be an aggrieved party….In truth they have endless ambitions of imperial domination, and they wish to make everyone powerless except themselves.”2
Their “road map” is designed to accomplish three major objectives. Pipes stated them succinctly: (1) end Western influence in the Muslim world; (2) gain control of Muslim governments; and (3) establish, in Bush’s words, “a radical Islamic empire that spans from Spain to Indonesia.”3
Thrown into the mix is the obsession to gain or develop weapons of mass destruction, annihilate Israel, intimidate all of Europe, attack the American people, and isolate the U.S. government.
Their ultimate goal, said Bush, is “to enslave…and intimidate the world.”
This scathing exposé of the extent of the ambitions of radical Islamists will anger anti-American elements without and within the country. In actuality, the only question should be, Why has it taken so long to spell out facts that have been shouted from the rooftops by the Muslims themselves?
Islam is by nature and history an expansionist religion operating on two tracks:
- Infiltration and religious proselytizing. Muslims have had immense success recruiting converts in American prisons. It is known that some of the most militant, radical, and dangerous adherents to Islam were indoctrinated following conversion in U.S. prisons.
- Military conquest in the name of Islam. Islam commonly teaches that the planet is divided into two spheres: the House of Islam and the House of War. The House of Islam represents the greater Muslim world. The House of War exists in everything that is non-Islamic. Through one means or another, the inhabitants of the House of War must eventually be subjugated.
Therefore, to argue, as in the case of terrorist groups such as Hamas, that there are military and political wings of the organization with differing objectives, is a serious mistake. They all have a unified and unalterable objective: “to enslave whole nations and intimidate the world.” That means us, folks.
ENDNOTES
- Daniel Pipes, “Bush Declares War on Radical Islam,” October 11, 2005 <www.danielpipes.org/article/3026>.
- “President Discusses War on Terror at National Endowment for Democracy,” October 6, 2005 <www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/10/20051006-3.html>.
- Pipes.
