Letter: Threat of Islamo-fascism on the rise

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Posted: 10/18/07

10/18/07 - To the Cigar,

Throughout the intense and captivating history of the United States of America, there have raged many conflicts against myriad enemies. In the revolution, we tested the might of the British Empire, and found it wanting; in the second World War, we defeated the Nazi war machine on its own ground and wrought unparalleled devastation upon the Japanese bushi as we danced from island to diminutive South Pacific island.

In terms of ferocity and conviction, the enemy our nation faces today is equal to those of the past. When one takes retaliation into account, however, the situation changes dramatically. Our new enemy is not grouped in rank and file; it has no government and no borders; our new enemy is neither a man nor an army of men: it is the Islamo-fascist ideal.

It is a grievous adulteration of an otherwise holy and respectable and widespread faith, a faith that through the four centuries of its existence has fostered an abundance of intellect and culture. In contrast, Islamo-fascism appears to cultivate little more than an unfailing abhorrence directed toward the People of the Book, most notably the Jews, and promotes, and quite often prosecutes, the violent destruction of all positions and practices that are contrary to the dangerously extreme interpretation of the Koran to which they subscribe.

This fanatic zealotry is purportedly the will of God, but I believe that Christians, Jews and Muslims all will agree that God would not condone such wanton hate and death. Islamo-fascism is made all the more terrible and dangerous by its unorthodox and unethical methods.

They have an unnerving tendency to intentionally target civilians. They are terrorists, but more than that, they are ruthless and careless of the sanctity of life. They can conceal bombs beneath their clothing, and then drift to where multitudes of unsuspecting and innocent bystanders congregate, detonating the explosives and indiscriminately reducing men, women, and children to smithereens.

Or perhaps on any given day one of them might decide instead to pilot a jetliner fully laden with fuel and passengers into the side of one of the world's foremost symbols of global trade. Then again, perhaps they might prefer to abduct a foreign contractor or two, and saw his head off with a large knife; perhaps they will torture him first, while they hold a telephone to his lips so that his mother can hear him as he screams. All have happened before, and all may happen again.

The Islamo-fascists are friends to no one on this Earth; as if mercilessly slaughtering the innocent was not enough, they defraud well-meaning individuals of their money by using "charities"? as fronts to fund terrorist training programs and weapons acquisition. And yet, despite their danger and the depth of their evil, they have permeated society to an unimaginable degree, and their battle hymns are sung on every continent save Antarctica.

We cannot defeat them, but we can go a long way toward stalling their efforts by first realizing that they exist, which is something that far too many Americans, and people around the world, fail and sometimes refuse to do. So open your eyes, friends, Americans, countrymen, and do not quail in the face of our greatest foe yet.

Joseph LiVolsi