I have been saying this for several years now, in three books, scores of articles, and many public addresses. Now here is Daniel Pipes with more. He outlines the material in a recent Chicago Tribune article about the Muslim Brotherhood in the USA, and its goal to establish an Islamic state here, and then draws an important conclusion. From FrontPage, with thanks to EPG:
The hardest thing for Westerners to understand is not that a war with militant Islam is underway but that the nature of the enemy”s ultimate goal. That goal is to apply the Islamic law (the Shari”˜a) globally. In U.S. terms, it intends to replace the Constitution with the Qur’an.
This aspiration is so remote and far-fetched to many non-Muslims, it elicits more guffaws than apprehension. Of course, that used to be the same reaction in Europe, and now it’s become widely accepted that, in Bernard Lewis” words, “Europe will be Islamic by the end of the century.”
Because of the American skepticism about Islamist goals, I postponed publishing an article on this subject until immediately after 9/11, when I expected receptivity to the subject would be greater (it was published in November 2001 as “The Danger Within: Militant Islam in America”). I argued there that
The Muslim population in this country is not like any other group, for it includes within it a substantial body of people””many times more numerous than the agents of Osama bin Ladin””who share with the suicide hijackers a hatred of the United States and the desire, ultimately, to transform it into a nation living under the strictures of militant Islam.
The receptivity indeed was greater, but still the idea of an Islamist takeover remains unrecognized in establishment circles — the U.S. government, the old media, the universities, the mainline churches….
In suburban Rosemont, Ill., several thousand people attended MAS” annual conference in 2002 at the village’s convention center. One speaker said, “We may all feel emotionally attached to the goal of an Islamic state” in America, but it would have to wait because of the modest Muslim population. “We mustn’t cross hurdles we can’t jump yet.”
These revelations are particularly striking, coming as they do just days after a Washington Post article titled “In Search Of Friends Among The Foes,” which reports how some U.S. diplomats and intelligence officials believe the Muslim Brotherhood’s influence “offers an opportunity for political engagement that could help isolate violent jihadists.” Graham Fuller is quoted saying that “It is the preeminent movement in the Muslim world. It’s something we can work with.” Demonizing the Brotherhood, he warns, “would be foolhardy in the extreme.” Other analysts, such as Reuel Gerecht, Edward Djerejian, and Leslie Campbell, are quoted as being in agreement with this outlook.
But it is a deeply wrong and dangerous approach. Even if the Muslim Brotherhood is not specifically associated with violence in the United States (as it has been in other countries, including Egypt and Syria), it is deeply hostile to the United States and must be treated as one vital component of the enemy”s assault force.