The Losing Battle With Islam

David Selbourne opines in the current edition of The Spectator (UK): "Learning from Islam’s Advance"

With the US heading towards a painful defeat in Iraq, the Taleban reconstituted, Iran proceeding on its nuclear path, the ‘democratisation’ of Islamic states a no-hoper, and the liberties taken by Muslims of the diaspora on the increase, Islam nevertheless continues to be misperceived.

In this battle of arms, ideals and ideas, Islam is sustained by faith in its own divinely inspired righteousness and truth. However, non-Muslims are not up against a ‘religion’ narrowly understood but a this-worldly political cause; even the wearing of the veil in the Muslim diaspora is a political gesture. Indeed, Islam’s ambition — enjoined throughout the Koran — is to establish its political and ethical dominion over the globe...

But Islam's swift progress is easily explained. For the West - but not China or India - is as politically and ideologically weak as the world of Islam is strong. The West is handicapped by many factors: its over-benign liberalism, the lost moral status of the Christian faith, the vacillations of judiciaries and the incoherence of their judgments, political and military hesitations over strategy and tactics, poor intelligence (in both senses), and the complicities of the 'left'...

In addition, most Western governments appear to have forgotten simple political truths which the Islamic challenge should have reinforced. Among these truths is that the principles of the free society require toleration of the tolerant, but demand that intolerance be shown towards those who not only reject such free society's values but look forward to the day when they are brought down.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/archive/features/26132/learning-from-islams-advance.thtml

David Selbourne is the author of "The Losing Battle with Islam." His perspectives have been featured in two UK periodicals recently (and commented on in JihadWatch and elsewhere).