The Friday Furo Questus

Questus Furore: Regarding Islam and Terror
Rather than launch off on a whole different tangent, as is usually my wont, I'm going to continue a discussion already started by The Niem and e.gage. Unfortunately, I don't have the time for the considered response I intended (hopefully this weekend I will). So, two quick thoughts:

I don't see anyone around here passing out torches and rope. And while the catalog of hate crimes you mention is disturbing - it could be worse. We don't have lynch mobs running through the streets - and we have in the past. We are not rounding up Muslims and sending them to internment camps - and we have in the past. We're not perfect, but we're better than we were fifty years ago. Give Americans the benefit of the doubt.

e.gage has disagreed with my use of the term "Islamofascism," arguing that the only term that applies is terrorism. I'm going to have to disagree - because Islamofascism exists in Iran, and used to exist in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan*. Now, there might be a better term to describe it - and if you have something shorter in mind I'll be happy to use it. But how do we describe a ideological movement dedicated to restoration of the Islamic caliphate and rule by pure Islamic law - law as defined only by those who advocate this movement?

It's not a theocracy - because power is placed firmly in the hands of a few untouchable men. It is totalitarian government, wrapped in an Islamic flag; a perversion of Islam, rather than a stronghold.

If you will permit me a pedantic moment: terrorism is a method, a means to provoke a change; whereas totalitarianism is an end. This is just the totalitarian flavor of the decade - an Islamic-flavored kind. Its practitioners argue that they represent True Islam - and we cannot prove them wrong unless the normal practitioners of Islam help us defeat them. They are going to have to fight for their faith, disavowing those who go beyond the pale - just as Christians have to do with the Christian wingnuts.

Recommended Reading
Victor Davis Hanson: An American "Debacle."

Jonah Goldberg: Do You Have Miers Mental Dementia Obsessive Hysteria (Mm'Doh!)?

Myrna Byth: Feeling Disappointed?

And lastly, this interesting piece on economic freedom.

Patrolling the Front
This week, we have had an interesting discussion, a healthy back-and-forth that is precisely what I was hoping for when Jamo and I started this blog.

It started with this post by The Niem and went into the comments, then continued with this post by e.gage and its comments.

They have disagreed - but kept it healthy and civil. Thank you - and keep it up.

Thought of the Week
"Terror is not a new weapon. Throughout history it has been used by those who could not prevail, either by persuasion or example. But inevitably they fail, either because men are not afraid to die for a life worth living, or because the terrorists themselves came to realize that free men cannot be frightened by threats, and that aggression would meet its own response. And it is in the light of that history that every nation today should know, be he friend or foe, that the United States has both the will and the weapons to join free men in standing up to their responsibilities."
John F. Kennedy, 1961

Churchill Thought of the Week
"Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry."
Winston Churchill

*Note to Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson, who recently stated that life in Utah is like living under the rule of the Taliban: I'd like to see how long you'd last there, dipstick.