Charles Krauthammer: Enemies, foreign and domestic
…The fact that native-born Muslim Europeans are committing terror acts within their own countries shows that this Islamist malignancy long predates Iraq, long predates Afghanistan and long predates 9/11. What Europe had incubated is an enemy within, a threat that for decades Europe simply refused to face.
Early news reports of the London bombings mentioned that police found no suspects among known Islamist cells in Britain. Come again? Why in God’s name is a country letting known Islamist cells thrive, instead of just rolling them up?
Mark Steyn and Victor Davis Hanson provide some answers:
Mark Steyn: Mugged by reality?
WITH hindsight, the defining encounter of the age was not between Mohammed Atta’s jet and the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, but that between Mohammed Atta and Johnelle Bryant a year earlier…
Victor Davis Hanson: And Then They Came After Us
We’re at war. How about acting like it?
From 1967 we witnessed 40 years of bombers, child murdering, airline hijacking, suicide murdering, and gratuitous shooting. We in the West usually cried crocodile tears, and then came up with all sorts of reasons to allow such Middle Eastern killers a pass…
Daniel Pipes adds some statistical references, including – One in four Muslims sympathises with motives of terrorists.
Daniel Pipes: British Opinion Surveys from an Islamist Hell
Estimating how many potential terrorists reside in one’s country is a highly inexact business, but there’s a striking correlation between a British government report recently leaked to London’s Times a new opinion survey commissioned by the Daily Telegraph.
Osama Saeed confirms the preceeding:
Osama Saeed: Back to you, Mr Blair
…Mr Blair has attacked the idea of the caliphate – the equivalent of criticising the Pope. He has also remained silent in the face of a rightwing smear campaign against such eminent scholars as Sheikh al-Qaradawi – a man who has worked hard to reconcile Islam with modern democracy. Such actions and omissions fuel the suspicion that we are witnessing a war on Islam itself. If there is any thought that Muslims are fine but their religion can take a hike then Mr Blair should know that we will never be in the corner, in the spotlight, losing our religion.
By putting the onus on Muslims to defeat terror, the prime minister absolves himself of responsibility. Muslims are not in denial of our duties, but who are we meant to be combating?
It seems fairly clear to me: the motivation the terrorists themselves openly proclaim is Islam. One might call it a detectable demographic quirk.
Like, say, Muslim males between the ages of 17 and 40 with a prediliction for large backpacks, chemical laboratories and taking unaccustomed rides on the “tube.”
Simple really, about as difficult as determining that I wouldn’t support Michael Moore for President.