In this relatively brief book, Mr. Blankley has graphically described many facets of the `Clear and Present Danger' that Islam is to Western Civilization, and that if the War Against Radical Islam is not won in Europe, then the United States itself will be in for the fight of its life, and one that we may very well lose.
"The threat of the radical Islamists taking over Europe is every bit as great to the United States as was the threat of the Nazis taking over Europe in the 1940's." If anything, Mr. Blankley is vastly understating the problem. Imagine Radical Islamic France and Britain, with their Nuclear Submarines, ICBMs, and nuclear armed jet bombers threatening the United States, with radical Islamic Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Croatia all allied against the United States, along with the Middle Eastern and North Africa countries. A nuclear holocaust is very possible, for they would not care how many lives they lost compared to the US. They would also threaten Poland, the Ukraine, Serbia, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and Russia, since they would possess far greater resources than Hitler ever dreamed of. Their large population would also allow them to fight conventional wars, which would almost certainly escalate to the above-posited nuclear holocaust.
Mr. Blankley brings up, as a significant causative agent, the immense problem of liberalism. The biggest part of the problem is that liberals are not really liberal. A classical liberal education teaches that one must be able to analyze a subject, study it from all angles, differentiate between facts, documentable truth, opinion, and fable, and rationally reach a justifiable conclusion. A classical liberal mind dictates to itself that the maxims it learns are to be applied in the real world, and to completely deny a documentably accurate description of events is the ultimate fraud. Mr. Blankley describes that the liberals and multiculturists really took root after the carnage of WWI and led directly to the appeasement of Hitler by Neville Chamberlain in 1938. Still, with that history staring liberals in the face in the mirror each day, even today, liberals and multiculturists are still the people with closed minds; i.e. unwilling to view any data that contradicts their "don't bother me with facts and logic" already developed viewpoints. As Mr. Blankley points out, the adults of the 1930s and 1940s knew freedom of speech without the Politically Correct Police crashing down on them that so few of us can even imagine today.
Mr. Blankley briefly alludes to Andalusia, or Spain in the late 900s to the 1100's, and how the ruling Muslims sometimes wanted Christians and Jews to remain such rather than converting them, so that they could both lord it over them and tax them almost to the poor house. He really does not go into the massive human rights problems that are rampant with Sharia law; how it is the law of Muslim Men, by Muslim Men, and for Muslim Men. No women or non-Muslims need apply. That you do not get Islam without Sharia law to a greater or lesser extent, and with radical Islam, it is to the greater extent (think Taliban Afghanistan). That in fact, under Sharia law as it is practiced today, Jews and Christians are looked upon as Dhimmis, which is similar to the untermenschen concept of the Nazis. For example, Lebanon, thirty years ago, was 60% Christian. The Palestinian Liberation Army moved into Lebanon, started a "civil war" that was really a religious Jihad against the Christians, in which the Christians were looked upon as prey by the Muslims. Today, Lebanon's Christian population has shrunk to about 25%. The radical Muslims in Europe today, which may represent 10 to 20% of the Muslim population, are supported monetarily or tacitly by 25 to 30% more, and another 25-35% supports them, only quiescently. Radical Islamists look upon non-Muslim Europeans the same way the PLA and HAMAS looked on the Lebanese Christians.
Mr. Blankley spends some time on the loss of an active belief in their own cultures that many Europeans and Americans now profess. Christianity, Judaism, and Western Civilization and Culture all have long, rich, magnificent, and inspiring histories that owe almost nothing to Islam and started long before Islam started in 622AD, although the cradle cultures of Egypt and Mesopotamia (Persia) prior to Islam did enrich early Western Civilization. Mr. Blankley promotes acquiring knowledge of Europe's true roots and of Christianity and Judaism as part of the necessary solution. Knowledge leads to pride and self-worth, which will, according to this book, be part of the solution.
"The opinion of 10,000 men is of no value if none of them know anything about the subject." - Marcus Aurelius.
That so many Americans and Europeans are unwilling to really study Islam, including the radical side, and how the radicals utilize the Holy Qur'an, Hadiths, and traditions to justify their actions is a shame. That in their ignorance, they will not admit that they do not know enough to even have an opinion worth considering; that Islam is not just like another branch of Baptists or Presbyterians, or Catholics. Mr. Blankley basically alludes to other tomes that cover the roots of Radical Islamism in the notes section. A couple of them are listed in the Amazon `also bought' book section. Authors to look for are Robert Spencer, Daniel Pipes, David Horowitz, Harvey Kushner, Kenneth Timmerman, Dore Gold, Mark A. Gabriel, Ergun Mehmet Caner, Emir Fethi Caner, Steve Emerson, Paul Fregosi, Serge Trifkovic, Reverend J. L. Menezes, Paul Sperry, Ibn Warraq, and Bat Ye'or, to name a few. All of the tomes authored by the immediately preceding names have irrefutable facts, verifiable quotations, accurate historical knowledge, and impeccable logic. As Citizens of a free country, the opinions of these authors are for you to agree with or disagree with as you so desire, a freedom the Islamics, like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), would rather you did not have. Part of what you will find out is that the United States has the same problem, only to a lesser extant, as Europe does.
I have read Michael Sells, John Esposito, and Karen Armstrong. They are all Islamic apologists, and have few facts, little historically accurate knowledge or analysis, or logical thought derived from anything sustainable to justify their biased views. I have read Bernard Lewis. He is erudite and competent, but he, also, looks through rose-colored glasses. I have read the Holy Qur'an in four different translations, plus the Noble Qur'an (the current Saudi Arabia radical Wahhabi promoted translation). I have read many of the Hadith by several of the Authors of the collections (Bukhari, Moslem). I, like Mr. Blankley, am a student only since 9/11. Mr. Blankley speaks the undeniable truth in this tome. His facts, quotes, and documentation are accurate and irrefutable. His logic is impeccable. Every American, Mexican, Canadian, European, Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, Australian, Indian, Korean, and every citizen of every other non-Muslim nation on the Earth needs to read and understand this book, for the War Against Radical Islam will indeed involve all of them. Radical Islam will not quit until it is eliminated by moderate secular Islam or everyone on the earth is a Muslim, and is in at least tacit agreement with Radical Islamism.
For those who think that Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, or numerous other religions in the world were, or are, as warlike and full of hate for other religions and people as these radical Islamists prove that Islam is, is disingenuous at best, and totally fraudulent at worst. Even at their worst, no religion on Earth was ever, even in medieval times, as deceitful and aggressive as radical Islamists have made Islam.
A quote, from Sir Winston Churchill, with some comments, that Mr. Blankley should have included in his book.
Sir Winston Churchill was right about the Nazis in the 1930's while everyone else had their head stuck in the sand. The Nazis were just small time terrorists professing peace until they came into power in 1933. Even then, there were still some peaceful Nazis all the way through to 1945. If you lived in 1931 Germany as an adult and you knew what you know now, could you have stood by and let the Nazis roll over you?
Sir Winston Churchill was right about the Soviet Union, The Iron Curtain in Europe, and Communism when he gave his "Iron Curtain" Speech in the summer of 1946 in Kansas while everyone else had their head stuck in the sand. Russian Communists were mostly peaceful until they had a large enough of a following to initiate the Russian Revolution in 1917. Even then, there were still some peaceful communists in Russia even through to today. If you lived in 1917 Russia as an adult and you knew then what you know now, could you have stood by and let the Communists roll over you?
Sir Winston Churchill died before radical Islam became a threat to the world again, starting in 1972 at the Munich Olympics and really gaining steam by 1979 when the Ayatollah Khomeini took over Iran. If he had not died in 1965 he would have spoken out then and would still be doing so today, for, if anything, Islam has regressed since 1899.
Gregory Smith offers this Churchill comment on that great religion we are not fighting against, from The River War, first edition, Vol. II, pages 248 50 (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899).
"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute propertyeither as a child, a wife, or a concubinemust delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen; all know how to die; but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of sciencethe science against which it had vainly struggledthe civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome."
Sir Winston Churchill never imagined in his worst nightmare that Europe would let Islam into its house voluntarily.
There is no nation with a majority Islamic population that is not over 95% Islamic, with the exceptions of Egypt, where there are the Coptic Christians which still constitute 10% of the population (they were 100% in AD 646), and Lebanon. There is no country that is not-Islamic that has more than a 10% Islamic minority, with the possible exception of India, which has around 12%, and France, which has just gone over 10%.
The basic reason for no nations with a 50-50 split, or even close, is that once the tipping point is reached when the Muslims have the power, either from the barrel of a gun or through a voting or terrorizing majority, they will implement the Sharia and start radically and violently reducing and converting the remaining non-Muslims, as occurred in Lebanon.
The United States is now in a position similar to Germany in 1927, and Europe is now in a position similar to Germany in 1931, as in being very close to having the Nazis take over. It behooves everyone to speak up and to be knowledgeable enough to debate Islam and Radical Islam honestly in the public marketplace of ideas, and to debate what to do about the problem, as Mr. Blankley has promoted in this important and prophetic work.
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