During the Cold War, there was a great clash of civilizations—communism vs. Western liberal democracy. And it threatened to destroy us in a nuclear holocaust. I was in the White House during those years. I can tell you, it was terrifying getting those daily briefings from the military. But the danger that we face from radical Islam today is even greater than the Cold War.
In the mid-1990s Harvard professor Samuel Huntington predicted that the twenty-first century would see a great clash of civilizations between Islam and the West. Nobody paid much attention. After all, we had just defeated communism. There was peace in the world. All was well.
Then came September 11, when we awoke to the fact that there are people out there who want to destroy us— not just defeat us, but annihilate us...
The Clash of Civilizations Revisiting the Radical Islamic Worldview
August 16, 2006
During the Cold War, there was a great clash of civilizations—communism vs. Western liberal democracy. And it threatened to destroy us in a nuclear holocaust. I was in the White House during those years. I can tell you, it was terrifying getting those daily briefings from the military. But the danger that we face from radical Islam today is even greater than the Cold War.
In the mid-1990s Harvard professor Samuel Huntington predicted that the twenty-first century would see a great clash of civilizations between Islam and the West. Nobody paid much attention. After all, we had just defeated communism. There was peace in the world. All was well.
Then came September 11, when we awoke to the fact that there are people out there who want to destroy us—not just defeat us, but annihilate us.
Why? There has been a lot of hand-wringing in the West about why they hate us. "Maybe if we just got out of the Middle East," some say, "or elected a new government, or abandoned the war on terror, maybe they would change their minds." Well, what the pundits don't realize is that this is a clash of civilizations. Armies of suicide bombers ought to tell us that their worldview matters more to them than life itself.
The hard truth is that members of Islam's radical branches have no interest in coming to terms with non-Muslims, or even moderate Muslims. To put it bluntly, they don't care whether we're nice or not. To this breed of radical Muslim, there are only two options: convert or die.
Does that sound drastic? Sure. But it's a fact.
The history of Islamic hostility toward the West goes back centuries. Radical Muslims are still smarting over the defeat of their armies south of Paris in the year 732, not to mention the catastrophic defeat of the Ottoman Empire at the gates of Vienna on September 11, 1683. That's right, September 11. Bin Laden chose his date for a reason. He was avenging the defeat of Muslim armies more than four hundred years earlier. September 11 has roots in an irrational hatred of the West.
There was a brilliant but paranoid Egyptian writer by the name of Sayyid Qutb, imprisoned in Egypt in 1956. In 1970, he published a book, In the Shade of the Koran, attacking the West as totally corrupt. Qutb knew what he was talking about. He lived in the United States for a time and saw our decadence. He also read Western philosophers like Heidegger and Derrida and other intellectuals who hated the West. And he read all the anti-Zionist, anti-Semitic literature.
Qutb's In the Shade of the Koran unequivocally advocates the killing of "infidels." He was executed by the Egyptian government, but his brother, Muhammad Qutb, escaped Egypt, went to Saudi Arabia, and became a professor at the university. One of his star pupils was none other than Osama bin Laden. Don't tell me worldviews don't matter. This same worldview now influences millions of radical Muslims—up to 10 percent, according to some accounts, 100 million. What we're seeing in the Middle East today are not isolated acts of terrorism, but a widespread, well-organized, hatred-fueled movement.
Now, politicians don't like to say politically incorrect things like this, but it's true. We in the West had better understand that we are in a life-and-death struggle with a worldview that wants to destroy us. To see anything else would be tragically blind.
This commentary first aired on May 2, 2006.
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For all of you with teenagers or who have had teenagers, you may want to know why they really have a lot in common with cats:
1. Neither teenagers nor cats turn their heads when you call them by name.
2. No matter what you do for them, it is not enough. Indeed, all humane efforts are barely adequate to compensate for the privilege of waiting on them hand and foot.
3. You rarely see a cat walking outside of the house with an adult human being, and it can be safely said that no teenager in his or her right mind wants to be seen in public with his or her parents.
4. Even if you tell jokes as well as Jay Leno, neither your cat nor your teen will ever crack a smile.
5. No cat or teenager shares your taste in music.
6. Cats and teenagers can lie on the living-room sofa for hours on end without moving, barely breathing.
7. Cats have nine lives. Teenagers live as if they did.
8. Cats and teenagers yawn in exactly the same manner, communicating that ultimate human ecstasy -- a sense of complete and utter boredom.
9. Cats and teenagers do not improve anyone's furniture.
10. Cats that are free to roam outside sometimes have been known to return in the middle of the night to deposit a dead animal in your bedroom. Teenagers are not above that sort of behavior.
Thus, if you must raise teenagers, the best sources of advice are not other parents, but veterinarians. It is also a good idea to keep a guidebook on cats at hand at all times. And remember, above all else, put out the food and do not make any sudden moves in their direction. When they make up their minds, they will finally come to you for some affection and comfort, and it will be a triumphant moment for all concerned.
Q: How do you sink a submarine full of UNC grads? A: Knock on the door.
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(Not amalgamated with 'Thought & Humor')
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