As I stated in a previous post, Paul Berman is an emerging former brain dead liberal. Having made that observation and, having read his editorial in today's NY Slimes, it is very much obvious and relevant that Mr Berman has yet to grasp The Threat of the alleged radical Islam.
There is no such thing as radical Islam. There are no radical elements that have taken the peaceful part of Islam and turned it into something radical. Islam is a religious-political tenet of existence and the very premise and foundings of the cult of Islam is death and destruction to all that oppose its teachings. Think Sharia Law. It is Islamic Law based on the teachings of Islam...they go hand in hand and you cannot have one without the other.
Mr Berman seems to be under the impression that Islam has been radicalized within the last five years or so and has grown from influences of 20th century Europe. He is just about 2000+ years in error. That is a long time and the error of his premise is all too dangerous to not go unchallenged. Apparently, the fall of the Caliphate circa 1924 has escaped his vast researching.
[...] I tried to show that radical Islamism is a modern philosophy, not just a heap of medieval prejudices. In its sundry versions, it draws on local and religious roots, just as it claims to do. But it also draws on totalitarian inspirations from 20th-century Europe. I wanted my readers to understand that with its double roots, religious and modern, perversely intertwined, radical Islamism wields a lot more power, intellectually speaking, than naive observers might suppose. [...]As for the alleged radical elements, the United States has been under attack by the Islamo Fascists since the mid to late '70s. History bears this fact out regardless the rhetoric to the contrary. Think at least of 1979. I, myself, have been doing battle with them in this country we call the United States circa 1974. I have studied much of Islam and the teachings thereof for nearly 4 decades. That is a long time. Yes?
I have read the Qu'ran cover to cover several times and I have special passages ear-marked and hi-lighted in deep dark red - denoting blood lust for the infidel. These passages may be considered radical to one that loves freedom and liberty but freedom and liberty is a "radical" concept to the proponents of Islam. Islam and liberty cannot be reconciled - it is like trying to mix oil and water - it will never happen.
Regardless, he has been able to recognize that which others in his cadre will not or, cannot bring themselves to accept. They are so immersed in SDS BDS that they are blinded from the truth. Sad that and a very lethal mistake. Hatred does that to people.
[...] Even in the Western countries, quite a few Muslim liberals, the outspoken ones, live today under a threat of assassination, not to mention a reality of character assassination. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-Dutch legislator and writer, is merely an exceptionally valiant example. But instead of enjoying the unstinting support of their non-Muslim colleagues, the Muslim liberals find themselves routinely berated in the highbrow magazines and the universities as deracinated nonentities, alienated from the Muslim world. Or they find themselves pilloried as stooges of the neoconservative conspiracy - quite as if any writer from a Muslim background who fails to adhere to at least a few anti-imperialist or anti-Zionist tenets of the Islamist doctrine must be incapable of thinking his or her own thoughts.
A dismaying development. One more sign of the power of the extremist ideologies - one more surprising turn of events, on top of all the other dreadful and gut-wrenching surprises.[END]The problem with that train of thought is this; those that see Islam for what it is and have rejected its teachings as demonstratively venial and virally destructive and divorce themselves from Islam are, by the very nature of Islam, apostates and are viable targets of death...the teaching is, "once a Muslim always a Muslim" and if you depart from the faith, death is your reward.
Nice "religion", eh? At least Mr Berman is on the right track, unlike others in the liberal camp of dhimmitude.
Vote it up at Real Clear Politics
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