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Radical Islam vs. Democracy

(White House) Stephen Hadley - U.S. National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on 18 Oct 05: "As we continue these efforts to disrupt, degrade, and ultimately, defeat al-Qaeda and its supporters, we are better able to define the enemy. We are facing a transnational movement of extremist organizations, networks, and individuals - as well as their state and non-state supporters - that share an extremist ideology and pursue a common strategy." "In al-Qaeda's vision, Iraq would then become the safe haven from which to launch attacks against non-Islamist governments, including Israel, as well as Iraq's neighbors. Ultimately, al-Qaeda hopes to rally the Muslim masses, overthrow the moderate governments of the region, and reestablish the Islamic caliphate that, in our current day, would rule from Spain to Indonesia and beyond. The aspirations of these terrorist extremists do not end with the Middle East....Abu Bakar Bashir, the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, the al-Qaeda affiliate responsible for deadly bombings in Indonesia, recently declared: "If the West wants peace, they'll have to accept to be governed by Islam." "From the beginning, the war on terror has been both a battle of arms and a battle of ideas....The antidote to this radical vision is democracy, justice, and the freedom agenda....Yussuf al-Ayyeri, one of Usama Bin Laden's closest associates, wrote: 'It is not the American war machine that should be of the utmost concern to Muslims. What threatens the future of Islam, in fact its very survival, is American democracy.'"
2005-10-21 00:00:00
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