war for civilization
Charles Johnson
Thu Nov 1, 2001 at 7:40 am PST • Views: 138
The back and forth between Daniel Pipes and David Forte continues with an excellent piece by Forte at the National Review: War for Civilization.
We are in a war for civilization (not between civilizations). No one said, or should have said, that this would be easy. Of course Islamic extremism has deep roots in the Muslim world. Of course Islamic fundamentalism brings in its train its own problems. Yes, we are battling decades of anti-Western propaganda, the detritus from autocratic regimes, generations of ignorance, and centuries of tribalism — and we deal as well with the harsh effects of a decade’s worth of appeasement of Islamist radicals and neglect and even betrayal of democratic movements. But this only means that our task is complex. It does not mean it is unwinnable. We are only at the beginning. Bin Laden does not rule one-third of the earth as the Communists did. He does not rule one-third of Islam. And we need to keep it that way, and not to make it easier for him to satisfy his malevolent design to achieve influence and reign over Islam.
Frank says: