[baltodog]

"...the only way to avoid a horrendous "clash of civilizations" with Islam is to better understand what drives Islamism."

Nothing much to understand.
Their's is an oppressive religion. We must all be oppressed.

Their oppression has forced them to live in a backwards and barbaric society, while the rest of the world has progressed.

They are jealous of what we have.

[JFK_Lib]

Islamacists can be defeated by promoting a moderate version of Islam that takes the Quran seriously which the Islamacists dont.

While Islamacism is a cultural fundamentalism, it can be trumped by a movement of people who might be thought of as religiously fundamentalist. While many may consider that a step backwards, the Quran, when read literally, does not allow for the use of inhumane tactics on Christians and Jews, but only for aggressive heathen or infadels which the Quran identifies as those who do not profess a belief int he God of Abraham.

This is a spiritual war fought on a physical level. We canonly win it if we engage in the spiritual struggle as well.

But the secularists will continue to tie our hands in this respect and will advocate the use of secular science to undermine the Islamic faith, and this will not and cannot work in the long run. Western science int he popular mind has become fundamentally flwed as it is percieved as hostile to religion and the Trojan Horse for every moral degeneracy imaginable. On that basis it will always be rejected by a moral people.

[molonlabe123]

Crush your enemy, Drive them before you and listen to the lamentations of their women.

[thoughtomator]

The guy ought to try reading the Koran. Islam aims to dominate the world and kill anyone in the way, and authorizes any action to that end.

[FredZarguna]

Other than a hatred for Western civilization — and, in reality, any religious tenets other than its own — Islamism has no clear underlying program, no intellectual foundation and no assertions of scientific truth or inevitability.

I would submit that the question about Islamist incoherency obtains from a larger incoherency: the incoherency of Islam itself, and Islamic culture in very general terms. Respectfully, let me ask of any Muslims reading or posting on FR: what is it that your religion actually believes? If you want to know, for example, what all Christians must believe, read the Nicene Creed. There is a very short core of work in which observant Jews believe. You can summarize Buddhism in a paragraph of a few sentences (4 truths, and the 8-fold way). And so on. I submit that the people committing atrocities in the name of Islam are justified within their own belief system, because there is essentially nothing in which Muslims believe except that there is only one God, and Mohamed is his prophet. But unlike the other religions of the world, this belief leads nowhere: it isn't a prescription for a moral life, nor a recipe for salvation. It says nothing metaphysically that could benefit an individual.

[hlmencken3]

As such, perhaps the only way to avoid a horrendous "clash of civilizations" with Islam is to better understand what drives Islamism.

No such clash can be avoided. Could the Italians in 1480 or Vienna in 1529, or the Allies in WWI, have avoided a clash with Muslims?

The West enjoyed a respite from Islamic attacks after the collapse of the Ottamans in WWI, but it was a certainty that Islam would attack again when they acquired enough (oil) wealth.

[Modok]

I thought this was going to be about the other America haters, the liberals.

[Jon Alvarez]

there's no mention of American liberalism in this article...the enemy within.

http://www.cafepress.com/patriotshoppe.14767648

[Migraine]

As such, perhaps the only way to avoid a horrendous "clash of civilizations" with Islam is to better understand what drives Islamism

Whoa! This guy writes a perfectly coherent essay, making eminent sense -- until that last sentence, ostensibly the concluding nugget of truth.

But whoa! This "understanding islamism" did not seem to be his original drift. I thought he would conclude with something sensible -- like "What has caused Islamism to thrive in the modern world is the immense, politically-correct tolerance of Europe and America. Without this Mr.Rogers, JimmyCarter-esque posture, islamism could not have risen to the globe-threatening status we now are witnessing".

[oldbrowser]

Because it claims to be speaking on behalf of a venerable religion with more than a billion followers, Islamism also presents the terrifying but crucial problem of differentiating friend from foe

It is therefore up to Islam to police itself, since we can't tell them apart our only defense is to suspect them all.

[Gucho]

"the only way to avoid a horrendous "clash of civilizations" with Islam is to better understand what drives Islamism."
"Islamic fundamentalism poses a challenge that goes beyond the military and the ideological to the essentially cultural, in large part because its grievances and objectives are so incoherent, open-ended and lacking in any claims to rationality. Other than a hatred for Western civilization — and, in reality, any religious tenets other than its own — Islamism has no clear underlying program, no intellectual foundation and no assertions of scientific truth or inevitability."

I see - and IMHO, that is why the CLASH is on.