Professor Paul Eidelberg
The devastating attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11 by Muslim terrorists (primarily from Saudi Arabia and Egypt) was rightly deemed by President George W. Bush as a declaration of war against the United States. Mr. Bush responded by declaring war on international terrorism, warning that any state that harbors such terrorists will be subject to American wrath.
Now, as any serious and candid observer will understand, the war against international terrorism is, in truth, a war against Islam, the seedbed of such terrorism. Who does not know that the Islamic world gleefully celebrated the destruction of the Twin Towers and the death of 3,000 men, women, and children? No Arab or Muslim state denounced this barbarism. Nor did any Islamic spiritual leader in the Middle East or in Europe.
From the very outset of this war, America’s enemies have been identified as “Islamic fundamentalists” or as “Islamists.” But as the present writer said years ago, “Islamic fundamentalism” is authentic Islam. Consistent therewith, but contrary to the position taken by the eminent Bernard Lewis and Daniel Pipes, Henri Boulad, an Egyptian Jesuit, and a specialist in Islam, states unambiguously that “ISLAMISM IS ISLAM.” In an article published in April 1997 and bearing that title, he writes:
This statement [that Islamism is Islam] is perfectly consistent with history and geography, with the Koran and the sunna, with the life of Muhammad and the evolution of Islam, with what Islam says about itself. I reject the position of people—Muslims or Christians—who bury their heads in the sand like ostriches, beat about the bush, refuse to view the situation objectively, or take their wishes for realities, on behalf of dialogue and tolerance. (Cited in Bat Ye’or, ISLAM AND DHIMMITUTE: WHERE CIVILIZATIONS COLLIDE, p. 339.)
Unless the United States rightly identifies the enemy, it cannot possibly win
this gravest war in American history. The question is, can easy-going, multi-cultural
America win a war against a 1,380 year-old civilization whose adherents number
more than a billion people scattered among more than 56 Muslim states? Does
America possess the will and the wisdom and the wherewithal for such an arduous
and protracted conflict? Assuming it does,
what is to be done?
Before answering this question, it is futile to think that Islam can be “moderated” or “modernized” or “democratized,” the position suggested by the estimable Daniel Pipes. Nothing in human experience supports such a thing. A civilization may be subverted, it may be conquered and transformed (like Japan), or it may simply disintegrate. Bu thanks to Europe’s immigration policies, that erstwhile home of Western civilization will be Arabized sooner than Islam will be modernized. (Were it not for Euro-American economic interests in the Middle East, Islam would sink into its own black hole.
So, what is to be done?
First, after priming public opinion, the Bush administration should destroy Saddam Hussein’s regime while providing a defensive shield around Israel. On the day of the initial attack, it should assemble all Arab ambassadors and read them the riot act: “Mess with us and you’re next!”
Second, to sustain public support, the “clash of civilizations” motif should be emphasized. To facilitate this purpose, a massive campaign should be launched to promote Bat Ye’or’s eye-opening book mentioned above: to repeat, ISLAM AND DHIMMITUDE: WHERE CIVILIZATIONS COLLIDE.
Third, respected commentators should expose, as Dr. Pipes has courageously done, the frequency of Islamic violence around the globe, making explicit reference to Islamic oppression of non-Muslim minorities in general, and the Palestinian destruction of the Lebanese Christian community in particular.
Fourth, expose European appeasement of Arab-Islamic states as well as European support of the “Palestinians” as motivated by
(1) Europe’s vast economic interests in Arab lands,
(2) habitual European anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel, and
(3) as a power play directed against the United
States.
Fifth, a proactive Christian-Jewish alliance should be forged in the U.S. Christians
and Jews should know that European Churches, animated by hatred of Jews and
Zionism, have long been allied with the Islamic world despite the latter’s
degradation of Christian communities down through the ages. They should know
that Israel is the key to the conflict because its
existence contradicts the “replacement theology” of Orthodox Christianity
and of Islam, according to which the Jews are supposed to be forever dispersed
and accursed or exist in a the degraded state of dhimmitude.
A proactive alliance of Jews and Christians will make Muslim leaders know they are in for a rough ride. This alliance must influence U.S. foreign policy so as to
(1) isolate England from Europe—not a difficult task;
(2) forge stronger economic ties with Russia;
(3) support European elements that want to halt Muslim immigration;
(4) diminish American economic interests in the Middle East, partly by developing alternative energy sources;
(5) cut military aid to Egypt (presently on a wartime budget);
(6) distance America from Saudi Arabia;
(7) encourage Israel to eliminate Arafat’s entire terrorist leadership;
(8) allow Israel to remain in Judea and Samaria long enough to preclude a Palestinian state (I have a separate plan for this last item).
President Bush said we are at war. In war moderation is a formula for defeat.