(Jerusalem Post) Yehuda Bauer - Islam is not a murderous religion, but in the last 50 years there arose a new interpretation of Islam, a radical theology that has been spreading like cancer among the 1.2 billion or so Muslim believers in the world. Radical, totalitarian Islamists demand that the existing Arab national states should become Islamized, governed by religious (shari'a) law, not by constitutions, and certainly not by democratic institutions reflecting the will of a majority. The aim is to conquer the world and make it Islamic, resulting in a utopia ruled by Islamic religious experts. If all U.S. troops were withdrawn from Saudi Arabia, and Israel defeated, with its Jewish population annihilated, the main target would still remain: world conquest. National Socialism, Communism, and now totalitarian Islamism all aspired, or aspire, to rule over the entire world, and all three were, or are, genocidal. The radical Islamist attack on the Jews is a first, potentially genocidal step. Ultimately and explicitly, as in similar previous situations, it is directed against Western civilization as such. If intellectual, economic, and political defense against radical Islamism, and not just a military response, is postponed because of weak-kneed Western attitudes, the price paid later will be very high indeed, as was the price the world paid for the rise of National Socialism and Soviet Communism.
2002-12-02 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive