Posted by
Always To The Right on Friday, February 01, 2008 4:17:19 PM
Speaking out Against
Islamism A moderate Muslim encourages Western leaders to
confront radical Islam with confidence (and not be fooled by
its political cousin).
This
mantra has always been the right ideological stage for an eventual
defeat of the Islamists. Yet again, after seven years of a Bush
administration, the stage remains empty and the idea is left for dead.
Listening only to President Bush and others in his administration
(including the likes of former Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and
Public Affairs Karen
Hughes) supposedly leading the contest of ideas, one would never
understand what the other side, the Islamists, were actually all about
or what they were actually saying. They presented the Islamists with no
open challenge, debate, or critical engagement.
Mr.
President, your intentions of an ideological liberation of the Muslim
world are on the mark. But an effective execution in this contest of
ideas has yet to even begin. A national and, more importantly, a
global, critical
engagement of American ideas against Islamist ideas has yet to take
place in any measurable fashion. How can we speak about bringing
liberty and freedom to the Muslim world when the Islamist mindset
remains effectively unchallenged by mainstream media and politicians in
our public arena? How can we liberate ideas we never engaged?
This
war is about listening to the words of our enemies. It is about the
ideas of our enemies which make them repel from freedom. In this debate
season where vagaries are shunned and specifics lauded, it is time for
the candidates to get specific. Here are the questions which will
probably never be asked in this year’s debates but whose answers would
separate real leaders from demagogues.
The
tactic of terrorism is employed for the furtherance of radical
political Islam. If radical political Islam is our enemy, non-violent
political Islam is certainly not our friend. Muslims who believe in and
advocate universal liberty, freedom, and pluralism should hear us
honestly advocate for them and help them succeed against the Islamists.
Playing both sides will further hurt our credibility and undermine our
security. Muslims who believe in and advocate political Islam should
hear us articulate a national strategy to discredit and disavow their
ideas in the ideological market place of the Muslim world.
Will
the candidates for leadership of the free world ever be tested on these
questions going into Super Tuesday and into the conventions and beyond?
Probably not.