Victory in War on Terrorism Requires the Defeat of Radical Islam
On Wednesday evening, a U.S. air strike on a safehouse just east of Baqouba, Iraq killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, head of Iraq’s Al Qaeda organization and one of the world’s most active and deadliest terrorists. Shortly, thereafter, Al Qaeda in Iraq issued a statement that read, “The death of our leaders is life for us. It will only increase our persistence in continuing holy war so that the word of God will be supreme.” Hours later, a car bomb blew up in a Baghdad market.
The successful air strike against al-Zarqawi is a positive deveopment in the ongoing global war on Islamist terrorism. Anytime a killer of al-Zarqawi’s stature is taken out of circulation, progress is made. However, Radical Islam, the ideology behind Islamist terrorism, isn’t the product of al-Zarqawi and his like. Rather, al-Zarqawi and his like are the products of Radical Islam.
Radical Islam, also known as Islamism, which should be distinguished from Islam itself, presents arguably the biggest threat to international peace and security in the opening years of the 21st century. By its very nature, it renders diplomacy useless.
Diplomacy entails the negotiation over disputes. The pursuit of diplomacy rests on the assumption купить ломтерезку that a given dispute is not irreconcilable. If a dispute is not irreconcilable, then the negotiating process Brother XL-5050 can lead to common ground that bridges the parties’ differences in such a fashion that the core needs of all of the parties are met, even if some or many of their more ambitious or expansive desires are not.
However, the search for common ground cannot proceed unless the parties possess a minimal degree of tolerance. The parties must possess a willingness to live with Nokia N-Gage QD one another, or the incentives must exist for them to develop such a willingness. In the former case, diplomacy can commence without delay. In the latter case, it likely won’t commence, much less succeed, unless the benefits reach a critical threshold necessary to shatter the inhibitions that preclude the parties’ readiness to live with one another.
Radical Islam is currently at an evolutionary stage where its adherents do not wish to live with the “other.” It is also currently at a stage of development where it seeks to suffocate any dissent by Muslims and non-Muslims alike through delegitimization, intimidation, and even brute force. The examples of Radical Islam’s intolerance of dissent are widespread and continuing to mount.
Radical Islamists have issued death threats against public officials, writers and intellectuals such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Irshad Manji and Salman Rushdie who have dared to speak out against their quasi-religious totalitarianism. They have attempted to bully Mukhtaran Bibi, a champion
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