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The Day Ahead: November 25
November 25, 2009 | 0 comments
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The Day Ahead: November 24
November 24, 2009 | 0 comments
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The Day Ahead: November 23
November 23, 2009 | 0 comments
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The Day Ahead: November 20
November 20, 2009 | 0 comments
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The Day Ahead: November 19
November 19, 2009 | 1 comment
The Spectacle Blog
Today on the main site:
- Taking Care of Big Labor, by Kevin Mooney
- Talking Health Care with Gov. Pawlenty, by Phillip Klein
- Chle Honors Pro-Soviet Churchman, by Mark Tooley
- Arguing with Bono, by Patrick O’Hannigan
Comment of the day:
Reader Rich Rostrom on Jay D. Homnick’s Go Fly Al Quaeda:
It is true that the 9/11 terrorists were Moslems, that they acted on Moslem religious motives, and that they had the support and approval of other Moslems. Not stating they were Moslems would be whitewashing this.
However, the Gestapo and the NKVD acted as agents of the recognized supreme authorities of their ideologies (Nazism and Communism). The 9/11 terrorists were not acting as agents of any Moslem authority, much less a recognized supreme authority. Their claim to be acting for “Islam” was self-asserted, and arguably fraudulent.
Al-Qaeda and its affiliates have murdered many thousands of Moslems, and are treated as criminals by the governments of most Moslem countries. The Pakistani army has had about as many men killed fighting Al-Qaeda and the Taliban as the U.S. has lost in Iraq and Afghanistan.
To define the 9/11 attackers as simply “Moslem terrorists” validates their claim to be acting on behalf of “Islam”. To define “Islam” as the enemy is to make enemies of a lot of people who are not our enemies, and many of whom are our allies.
What to watch for:
Game of the day:
Weekend’s Best:
View all comments (5) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Maia Lazar
http://spectator.org/blog/2009/11/02/the-day-ahead-november-2
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MattSwartz | 11.2.09 @ 8:54AM
Your commenter makes a good point. "Islam" is not at war with us, and it's a good thing, too, because to win such a war, we would have to outdo Hitler's attack on the Jews by a multiple of twenty, which would probably make our western Civilization so monstrous that it would no longer be worth saving.
Jeff Y. | 11.2.09 @ 12:21PM
I think both Rostrom and Swartz are wrong. Islam is not just a religion. It is also a political, social, and even financial ideology. Islam divides the world into two spheres of influence, the House of Submission for believers and the House of War for non-believers. Separation of church and state is almost totally inconceivable under Islam. It's evident that Rostrom and Swartz err by applying Western, Christian categories to a non-Christian, non-Western society.
Islamic terrorism is an old problem. When Benjamin Franklin asked the Barbary ambassador why his people preyed upon US shipping, the ambassador replied: "Founded on the laws of their prophet, and written in the Quran, all nations who did not acknowledge their (King’s) authority were sinners, and it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every ‘Musselman’ (Muslim) who should be slain in Battle was sure to go to Paradise."
Islamic terrorism was one of the very first diplomatic problems faced by the US.
Islamic leaders fund Islamic fighters. So what if there is no definite chain of command? There is a definite line of communication. This is all is a deliberate strategy of Islamic conflict against the West, perfected by the PLO. Islamic fighters the world over have learned how to take military advantage by acts of perfidy. Islamic fighters use the Geneva conventions against us. This is another way Rostrom errs: he applies Western categories to a non-Western way of war.
Swartz worries that we can defeat Islam only be genocide. His worry is misplaced. With military means, we can fight a limited war against Islamic fighters. With diplomatic, social, cultural and economic means, we can fight an unlimited war against the totalitarian Islamic political culture.
MattSwartz| 11.2.09 @ 12:42PM
Christians are also not a monolith. A radical with an anti-Christian view of history could use similar arguments to link all of us to Hitler, the Crusades, Jim Crow, and all sorts of other things that I personally believe are aberrations from mainstream Christian thought and theology rather than instances of the mask of civility slipping away to reveal the true nature of the thing.
Similarly, Islam cannot be reduced to it's worst actors. Ideologically, I believe that it is less peaceful and less just than our Western version of Christianity, but it is that way precisely because of it's insistence on viewing individuals as such rather than as parts of an insidious whole.
Suicide martyrdom against civilians (like we saw on 9/11) is not orthodox Muslim practice, nor is there any historical precedent (pre-1970) for the use of such a tactic.
Quartermaster| 11.2.09 @ 4:45PM
"Similarly, Islam cannot be reduced to it's worst actors."
As Christians, we are not expected to support our bad actors. We are expected to think for ourselves and pay attention to the Words of Christ. This is not the case in Islam. They are expected to support the bad actors. It is easy to place yourself in the chair you have. But, you have done so in ignorance and made a very serious mistake. A mistake the Wahabis are glad for you to make. These same noble Muslims are seeking to wipe out Israel, and to make war on us as we have supported Israel. If you really don't believe this, you haven't been paying attention.