The American Spectator

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During the Cold War, the most eloquent and effective anticommunists were often ex-communists. Hassan Butt's must-read Daily Mail op-ed makes me think that former radicals may be just as important in the fight against radical Islamism:

When I was still a member of what is probably best termed the British Jihadi Network - a series of British Muslim terrorist groups linked by a single ideology - I remember how we used to laugh in celebration whenever people on TV proclaimed that the sole cause for Islamic acts of terror like 9/11, the Madrid bombings and 7/7 was Western foreign policy.

By blaming the Government for our actions, those who pushed this "Blair's bombs" line did our propaganda work for us.

More important, they also helped to draw away any critical examination from the real engine of our violence: Islamic theology.

Butt faults Muslim leaders for avoiding theological arguments. Seriously, read the whole thing.

topics:
Foreign Policy, Islam