The problem is that the so-called “radical” schools are radical only to us and to those who embrace our general culture and understanding of human rights. These schools do not outrage Muslims, certainly not enough to isolate them, because the attitudes taught in them are pervasive in Islamic culture even if relative few muslims directly act on them. However you view the Koran, muslims see in that book justification for their culture and a rational study of that work will by no means compel one toward the conclusion that their interpretations are necessarily wrong. This hateful strain is stubborn. It will never allow the Israel situation to be solved, unless there is no Israel. It is not tolerant of anything but itself. It actually murders and allows murder to flourish within Islamic culture. Clearly it is not something that can be negotiated away.
The issue is not whether anyone has “corrupted” islam. No one is in position to make such an authoritative claim. The issue does not even concern how to change the attitude. A far more important issue looms before us. The issue is that there is a hateful strain in all of Islamic culture that in many cases produces violent people who threaten the lives of every civilized person on earth. This hate allows islamic murderers to blend seamlessly with muslims who may not themselves commit atrocious acts against innocent people. Unless we can find ways to isolate those who are willing to murder, then when the pot begins to boil, muslims are likely to be scalded indiscriminately.
It is really too late the change the madrasses. That is to mow the lawn as the tornado destroys the entire estate. The war has already been declared and is now engaged – we simply are unwilling to admit it. The “neocons” are wrong in their approach, and leftists are even more wrong. The West, the entire West, must understand and accept that when war is engaged, especially war of this type, there is no room for sensitivity and gentleness. It is necessarily a very messy business, wherein evil necessarily takes place each day. Either our enemies and their innocent people die or we and our children die. There is no middle ground. So it is best that when evil occurs, it should always result in the death of terrorists and their people and not us. Should we consistently and brutally wage war as it was meant to be waged, this war would end efficiently, far fewer of us would die and the hateful strain of islam will vanish as muslims come to understand that it only kills muslims. Only then can we extend the hand of brotherhood earnestly to muslims – and they would certainly reach for it as Japan did.
You cannot legitimately blame the U.S. for this state of affairs by any means, unless you embrace some extra-natural system of morality. The U.S., by trading with nations that have “faults,” as you put it, was simply doing what she thought best for the U.S., while not participating in any of these faults herself. The nations with “faults” maintain their faults, and if the U.S. does not wish to engage in these faults then she does not have to do so. You exploit the same principle against me when you say “Don’t like abortions? Don’t have one!” You know that I am not responsible for your faults and should be concerned with them only should they threaten me (which, of course, they do since you force me to pay for them). I may choose to nevertheless trade with you, to even sell you equipment that you may convert into tools for abortion, and in nothing do I do wrong. America has no obligation to eliminate the faults in these nations, except when those faults threaten America. She is at liberty to trade with faulty nations, to even give them weapons. But she is not to blame for what those nations do with the weapons. |
