While one peaceful Muslim gives us the finger, Tom Bevan at RealClearPolitics dismantles the hopeless New York Times dhimmi Thomas Friedman’s ignorant and misplaced optimism: “Waiting in Vain for the Islamic Reformation,” December 16:
Tom Friedman, hopeless optimist:
Let’s not fool ourselves. Whatever threat the real Afghanistan poses to U.S. national security, the “Virtual Afghanistan” now poses just as big a threat. The Virtual Afghanistan is the network of hundreds of jihadist Web sites that inspire, train, educate and recruit young Muslims to engage in jihad against America and the West. Whatever surge we do in the real Afghanistan has no chance of being a self-sustaining success, unless there is a parallel surge — by Arab and Muslim political and religious leaders — against those who promote violent jihadism on the ground in Muslim lands and online in the Virtual Afghanistan.
Note to Tom: don’t hold your breath. We’re now eight years removed from 9/11, and the only thing the last 3,016 days have taught us is that there is no Islamic reformation coming any time soon, no budding civil war from which moderate Islam will emerge victorious.
As an aside, it certainly doesn’t help matters that despite nearly a decade peppered with additional acts of terrorism by Islamic fundamentalists, much of the media and the liberal intellectual elite of the Western world (among them, Mr. Friedman himself) continue to cling to a doctrine of political correctness that prevents the kind of unvarnished dialogue the matter requires. One need look no further than the terrorist attack at Fort Hood last month for a good example of what I’m talking about. […]
To Friedman’s point (and mine): this is a battle that has nothing to do with a particular president or policy. It cannot be won or lost (or perhaps even significantly influenced) by anyone or anything outside of the Muslim world. It is a struggle for the soul of the Islamic faith. And for the last eight years, unfortunately, the moderates have barely even shown up for the fight.