Will Islamic radicals self-destruct?

It’s about time we recognize that ‘war on terror’ is a war against Islam, at least the way the Koran asks Muslims to follow the ‘revelations’ to Mohammad in the form of Islamic radicalism.

Muslim religious radicalism has always been around. Islam was created from an aggressive movement that used violence and terror to grow from the Atlantic to Western Asia within 100 years of Mohammad’s death. Past periods of Muslim conquest are still regarded fondly by Muslims; after all, on three occasions Islam almost conquered all of Europe.

The current expression of violence in the name of Allah has been building for many years. In earlier periods, Islamic radicalism flared up from time-to-time in response to religious zeal or corrupt governments as an attempt to impose a religious solution on some social or political problem. The current Islamic terror is international because of the availability of mass media to supply bold headlines and the fact that the Islamic world is replete with theocratic dictatorships that cause economic backwardness. Islamic radicalism itself has no military power and relies on terrorism, fear and appeasement to gain attention and succeed.

As the news reports show, most of the victims of Islamic militancy are other Muslims. For this reason radicals eventually become unpopular among their own people and, hopefully, will run out of new recruits. If you think about it, the American invasion of Iraq was a clever exploitation of this phenomenon by forcing the Islamic radicals to fight in Iraq where they killed many Muslims, especially women and children, thus causing the Islamic radicals, such as al Qaeda, to lose their popularity among Muslims in general.

In the past the West did not get involved in Islamic religious wars unless attacked as they were three times before over the last 1,500 years, and on September 11th. Unfortunately, politically correct sensibilities make it even more difficult to confront Islamic radicalism head on. For example, fighting back is considered by Muslims and appeasers as culturally insensitive (i.e., a "war on Islam"), another ‘Crusade’ if you will, and many in the Western media have accepted this incredible interpretation of reality.

Some historians have pointed out that the medieval Crusades were a series of wars fought in response to Islamic violence against Christians, not as the opening act of aggression against Islam. In this respect the current war on terror is in the tradition of the Crusades.

There are many other ‘Crusades’ brewing around the world in all the places where Islam in the form of aggressive Islamic radicals is making unprovoked war on their Christian and Jewish neighbors. Politically correct academics and journalists enable the liberal news media to turn this reality inside out. But a close look at the violence in Africa, Asia and the Middle East shows a definite pattern of Islamic radicals persecuting those who do not agree with them, not the other way around.

Islamic terrorism makes most of the headlines but it is not the cause of many casualties as compared to many previous and current wars. Most of the related violence and deaths in the world is the result of many ‘little wars’ that get little media attention outside their region. While causalities from terrorism are currently about 5,000-10,000 dead a year worldwide, the dead and wounded from all the other ongoing wars actually comprise about 95 percent of all the casualties. Islamic terrorism seems to be larger because the terrorists threaten attacks every where and put much larger populations in fear.

A backlash to international terrorism has been created; the only terrorist victories are in the media. On the ground, the terrorists are losing everywhere. Their last refuges are places like Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Somalia, Gaza, a few of the Philippine islands, and tribal regions of Pakistan. Islamic terrorists are being chased out of Iraq, Somalia and the Philippines, while Pakistan seems to be getting increasingly tough with terrorists and pro-terrorist groups. Iran continues to support terrorism and Syria and Lebanon remain thorns only because of Iranian subsidized factions there; the same may be said of Gaza.

Islamic radicalism is often a reaction to economic and diplomatic ties with the West because they are interpreted as supporting western countries against Islam. The affected Muslim populace then forces their leaders to confront their self-inflicted problems.

Al Qaeda is as self-destructive as its many Islamic predecessors. For example, an al Qaeda suicide bomber recently blew himself up in a crowded mosque, killing 48 Muslim worshippers. Of course this kind of terror makes Muslims turn against al Qaeda, but the terrorists justify such dumb attacks because their Koran-inspired religious doctrine mandates that Muslims who don't agree with them are not really Muslims. You can imagine how well that goes over with most other Muslims. You can, but al Qaeda and their ilk can't, and hopefully that’s what will cause their demise.