Music: Doing It Their Way

turns to the issue of the status of Islam— and Islamist networks—in the United States. His thesis in this section is that the U.S., in a creditable attempt to show tolerance of Islam as a faith, has practiced a form of unilateral disarmament on the ideological front, and given militant Islam a privileged status no other such ideology would enjoy. The author offers a frank discussion of the difficulties one encounters in trying to have a reasonable discussion about Islamism in America: Self-appointed defenders of the interests of the Muslim faith are quick to hurl charges of bigotry. Pipes singles out the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Washington-based interest group, for its “bare-knuckled” approach to silencing critics of Islamic radicals. (Other religious faiths are considered fair game, as was evident in the recent flood of negative coverage given the Catholic Church over the actions of a small number of criminal priests.) Pipes gives details of his own confrontations with CAIR. He has accused the group of having links to Hamas—a view supported by Oliver “Buck” Revell, a former FBI associate director for investigative and counterintelligence operations, who has described CAIR as having had “intertwined membership” with “a front organization for Hamas that engages in propaganda for Islamic militants.” In response to these accusations, CAIR has set up a webpage dedicated to denouncing Pipes.

This ideological struggle will continue to trouble the U.S. after al-Qaeda is neutralized and its members are dead or in prison. The Muslim faith is growing, and, to the extent that recent Muslim converts tend to gravitate to the Islamist doctrine, this becomes a matter of public concern. The Islamists have a decided advantage in morale, thanks to their unselfconscious spirit of moral rightness; when this is translated into a willingness to kill those who disagree, it becomes a serious national-security threat. In order to come to grips with this challenge, we have to appreciate that the war of ideas is not between competing religious faiths, but between contrasting and mutually exclusive visions of society. You may be convinced that “it”—a Muslim theocracy—can’t happen here, but thousands of devoted Muslim militants are working hard to prove you wrong. NR

About the Author

Jay Nordlinger

Jay Nordlinger was a senior editor of National Review and a book fellow at National Review Institute.

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turns to the issue of the status of Islam— and Islamist networks—in the United States. His thesis in this section is that the U.S., in a creditable attempt to show tolerance of Islam as a faith, has practiced a form of unilateral disarmament on the ideological front, and given militant Islam a privileged status no other such ideology would enjoy. The author offers a frank discussion of the difficulties one encounters in trying to have a reasonable discussion about Islamism in America: Self-appointed defenders of the interests of the Muslim faith are quick to hurl charges of bigotry. Pipes singles out the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Washington-based interest group, for its “bare-knuckled” approach to silencing critics of Islamic radicals. (Other religious faiths are considered fair game, as was evident in the recent flood of negative coverage given the Catholic Church over the actions of a small number of criminal priests.) Pipes gives details of his own confrontations with CAIR. He has accused the group of having links to Hamas—a view supported by Oliver “Buck” Revell, a former FBI associate director for investigative and counterintelligence operations, who has described CAIR as having had “intertwined membership” with “a front organization for Hamas that engages in propaganda for Islamic militants.” In response to these accusations, CAIR has set up a webpage dedicated to denouncing Pipes.

This ideological struggle will continue to trouble the U.S. after al-Qaeda is neutralized and its members are dead or in prison. The Muslim faith is growing, and, to the extent that recent Muslim converts tend to gravitate to the Islamist doctrine, this becomes a matter of public concern. The Islamists have a decided advantage in morale, thanks to their unselfconscious spirit of moral rightness; when this is translated into a willingness to kill those who disagree, it becomes a serious national-security threat. In order to come to grips with this challenge, we have to appreciate that the war of ideas is not between competing religious faiths, but between contrasting and mutually exclusive visions of society. You may be convinced that “it”—a Muslim theocracy—can’t happen here, but thousands of devoted Muslim militants are working hard to prove you wrong. NR