As someone specializing in Islamic jihadism, one would expect I’d have much to say immediately after jihadi attacks of the sort that recently occurred in San Bernardino, or Paris, or Mali, where a total of about 180 dead. Ironically, I don’t: such attacks are ultimately symptoms of what I do deem worthy of talk, namely, root causes. (What can one add when a symptom of the root cause he has long warned against occurs other than “told you so”?)
So what is the root cause of jihadi attacks? Many think that the ultimate source of the ongoing terrorization of the West is Islam. Yet this notion has one problem: the Muslim world is immensely weak and intrinsically incapable of being a threat. That every Islamic assault on the West is a terrorist attack—and terrorism, as is known, is the weapon of the weak—speaks for itself.
This was not always the case. For approximately one thousand years, the Islamic world was the scourge of the West. Today’s history books may refer to those who terrorized Christian Europe as Arabs, Saracens, Moors, Ottomans, Turks, Mongols, or Tatars[1]—but all were operating under the same banner of jihad that the Islamic State is operating under.
No, today, the ultimate enemy is within. The root cause behind the nonstop Muslim terrorization of the West is found in those who stifle or whitewash all talk and examination of Muslim doctrine and history; who welcome hundreds of thousands of Muslim migrants while knowing that some are jihadi operatives and many are simply “radical”; who work to overthrow secular Arab dictators in the name of “democracy” and “freedom,” only to uncork the jihad suppressed by the autocrats (the Islamic State’s territory consists of lands that were “liberated” in Iraq, Libya, and Syria by the U.S. and its allies).
So are Western leaders and politicians the root cause behind the Islamic terrorization of the West?
Close—but still not there yet… Keep reading

George S. says
A brilliant article, Raymond. No more to add here, you nailed it so coherently and professionally.
In my humble opinion, the PC and MC bubble along with apologetics from the liberals will be burst completeley, and soon, by a war in Europe.
This war will shatter and completely break the bubble that has been built around citizens by the MSM, self-serving politicians, and the PC/MC crowd. The war will be with the millions of muslims who have been fed into the once great countries of Europe by ignorant and self-serving politicians.
pdxnag says
My local school board and city council need to read this. The Muslim population is exploding around me. The city wants more publicly subsidized housing, always targeted for occupation by non-white non-native folks.
School head says Islam is good, and may not be resisted.
http://www.pps.k12.or.us/superintendent/11091.htm
Pro-Islam Resolution, in support of the local Muslim victims of the San Bernardino Jihadi shooting.
http://www.portlandonline.com/auditor/index.cfm?c=50265&a=557025
Michael Copeland says
The new normal: to quote another’s comment:
“the true catastrophe of a multiculti, balkanized nightmare awaits you. Failed schools in a tower of Babel environment, crumbling infrastructure, high crime, perpetual near or actual bankruptcy at the State level…”
Laviero, http://gatesofvienna.net/2015/12/people-have-finally-had-enough/
jihad3tracker says
Hello pdxnag — I read the items in those 2 links.
Assuming that you live in or close to Portland, and therefore have an interest in safety of the community, how about exploring the content on http://www.citizenwarrior.com and http://www.inquiryintoislam.com, choosing three of the most relevant essays at each website, and sending suggestions that they read the ones you select?
Probably best to email them about 3 days before the Christmas school break starts, so there will be enough time to open them if their inboxes are busy. And make the email title non-hostile, and a bit generic — not using “Muslim” or “Islam’ in that subject line.
Finally, if YOU were once as clueless about Islam as I once was, it would be helpful to include that bio fact in the text of your message, to convey the unfortunate reality that most of us were in the dark about that “faith” earlier in our lives, but woke up eventually.
jihad3tracker says
Actually, now that my ancient brain has thought about the suggestion above, let me expand it:
Every reader here could do the same thing for their town or county school district administrators.
Why? It is a very safe bet that, even if those well-intentioned persons have not already written and sent to parents the typical “backlash and hate speech” reaction after San Bernardino’s jihad slaughter, eventually they will.
By the way, http://www.inquiryintoislam.com is somewhat gentler in its approach to clueless people getting a dose of facts about Islam, so I would give it a slight edge if you are pressed for time and are not able to read the broad range of items on both sites, although http://www.citizenwarrior is absolutely superb, too.
Michael Copeland says
Ah yes, the “root cause”. Important things, roots: they control what grows above. The Latin for root, “radix”, has given us the word “radical”. Such a pity that the tabloids are using that word, denoting the very core or heart of a matter, as if it describes some entirely wrong-headed idea. The radical may be a surprise to those who have not adequately grasped their subject, but he gains his ideas from acquaintance with the roots, the “fundamentals”.
Thus do the main stream media help to obfuscate the subject.
Edwin1683 says
I don’t think anyone could explain the current situation better than the great Raymond Ibrahim has done here.
Mach1Duck says
Looking at the Department of States terrorist organizations (http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/other/des/123085.htm) it becomes apparent that the Muslim Brotherhood and its many off shoots are not on there. The United States government needs to stand up for its citizens and declare: the Muslim Brotherhood, Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Muslim Student Association (MSA), North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), American Muslim Council (AMC), Muslim American Society (MSA), International Institute of Islamic Thought, Islamic Circle on North America (ICNA), and the American Muslims for Palestine as terrorist organizations and give their leadership 48 hours to leave the country. If they do not leave they are enemy combatants, and because they are not in uniform are considered as spies.
All the organizations listed below CAIR have been spawned by CAIR.
Christianblood says
“…The root cause behind the nonstop Muslim terrorization of the West is found in those who stifle or whitewash all talk and examination of Muslim doctrine and history; who welcome hundreds of thousands of Muslim migrants while knowing that some are jihadi operatives…”
There are TWO sides to the enemy:
One side is the obvious threat of islamic jihadi fascism in all its different manifestations. The other side is the radical fascist moral relativists who are wholeheartedly supporting and allied with islamo-fascists while openly dismantling and destroying traditional social values from within through radical moral relativist postmodernism. I believe, in the long run, the radical secular moral relativists are by far, much more dangerous than their islamo-fascist allies because they will eventually completely destroy the collective SOUL of societies from within, causing and internal and irrevocable implosion of any society that allows them to fester. Today, in America and in the Western world, radical moral relativists have already started to campaign for legalization of Bestiality, Incest and Pedophilia and in few years, these three ultimate perversions will be legalized. Please watch the video clip below and learn the campaign to legalize Bestiality, Incest and Pedophilia is already underway in America:
americansfortruth.com/video/vt/campaign/legalize/pedophilia/bestiality/incest?watch133a7
Norman says
[…] the radical secular moral relativists are by far, much more dangerous than their islamo-fascist allies because they will eventually completely destroy the collective SOUL of societies from within […]
Absolutely. As repulsive as Islam is to any reasonable person, one thing moslems have that secular relativists don’t is something to die for. Americans and Europeans, surfeited with affluent “life-styles” have become degenerate, weak and simple-minded, unwilling to fight for anything other than their twice-weekly wages.
The one hope remaining (and a slim one it is) might be in encouraging westerners to actually read the Koran and the various hadiths. An even superficial study of these texts reveals Islam to be a highly intolerant and dictatorial ideology, one that is intrinsically misogynistic and anti-Semitic. Perhaps those on the left who so vehemently defend Islam might be much less inclined to do so had they some idea of what exactly it is they are defending.
The great irony in all this is that, were Islam someday to come to power, its most stalwart defenders would be the first to lose their heads.
Christianblood says
Very well-said!
James Smithsonian says
Please talk with you neighbors, and not only to the users of this site. Good article though, quite informative.
NancyM says
Notice the explosion of the COEXIST bumper stickers. Nonsense masquerading as intellectual superiority.
I would agree that Islam will not defeat the West; the West is surrendering.
Screeminmeeme says
Superb and cogent article on OUR culpability in facilitating Islamic terrorism.
I’ve been saying this since 1999 (when I began to seriously study Islam and learned that it wasn’t the benign ”religion” I’d always supposed it to be). …..but not so well as Mr. Ibrahim who always hits the nail square on the head.
I cant express how much I appreciate Jihad Watch and all of the knowledgeable writers who contribute here. I have learned so much and always look forward to their assessment of current events involving Islam. Would to God that our capitulating government leaders would be willing to lay aside their precious biases and learn the truth about the Scourge on mankind from Spencer, et al…………but I don’t see it anywhere in the near future.
dumbledoresarmy says
“…I’ve been saying this since 1999 (when I began to seriously study Islam and learned that it wasn’t the benign ”religion” I’d always supposed it to be)…”.
I have to ask…what was it, two years before September 11 2001, that made you take that sceptical second look at Islam? Whose writings helped you realize it was *not* benign? Or was it just that you got curious and decided to read the Quran…when? whose translation?
I myself had read the Quran (Penguin: the N Dawood translation) before Sept 11 2001, and had already pegged it as a dangerous cult text; I was very worried about Pakistan’s getting The Bomb, and I knew that the Taliban were practising Islam ‘straight’, which was why they were so horrible. I knew about the apostasy law, from reading Christian testimonies of ex-Muslims. but I didn’t come across Jihadwatch until late 2006.
When was it that *you* found jihadwatch, and how exactly? Happenstance? Someone told you? It popped up in a google trawl? What made you read here…and what made you *stick around*??
I’m asking these questions because it’s *always* fascinating to hear people’s stories of how they ‘woke up’ to Islam, and/ or how and when and why they stumbled across Jihadwatch and/ or Spencer’s videos and / or books, and kept on listening and reading and learning.