Islamist Terrorists are Politicians in Religious Garb

09/20/2006

Paul Munnis

In my opinion Bill Clinton has it right on the Islamic religious problem. He was on Larry King Live on CNN last night and he commented on many subjects but the one that caught my attention was when he unmasked the Islamic movement and put it into proper context.

He observed that Islam is awash in disagreement and that there are at least two factions to each religious group of Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds. Each group has a moderate and an extreme wing within their Party. They are each positioning their message to win the hearts and the minds of the youth of the middle-east.

America has a powerful message in its own right: “Liberty,” “Freedom,” and a brighter future than can come from an agenda of terror. We need to sell our vision to these young people. The best way to do that is to align with the moderate factions within the Islamic religious society who want Islam to evolve to fit well into the new millennium.

He pointed out that some of our efforts in dealing with the mid-east are making it hard for the moderate voices to be heard - those that argue for peace. Conversely we make it easy for the extremists to get their message out - those that argue for conflict and focus on hate for America.

Clinton correctly observed that the extremist voices are not religious, they are political, and they have an agenda of grabbing power for their faction. These people are not blowing themselves up and killing innocents, they are getting others to do it for them with an ideological appeal and whenever we give ammunition to the extremists by doing something like torturing POW’s we are giving the extremists a voice of outrage and thus the means to recruit.

He points out that how we respond to Iran’s taunts in the UN is very important because we must be careful we are not playing into the hands of the extremists. We should be careful and not give them ammunition to spread hate and sow anger and discontent thus negating the work of the more moderate factions who are calling for peace and appealing to the youth of Iran for applied reason.

As for a nuclear threat from Iran he again correctly pointed out that if Iran were to strike a nuclear blow against the U.S. their finest day would have been the day before the strike. They simply would not exist after that. He said that the bigger threat is from rogue religious extremists who could steal nuclear weapons from a small nation like Iran, use them, and then hide among an innocent population making it very difficult to respond and retaliate.

Of course I’m paraphrasing Clinton here but it was a masterful interview, one that I hope you will have a chance to see and enjoy. We pray for another high quality leader to come along to fill Bill Clinton’s shoes.

Might that be Hillary? There are so many “If’s” to be conquered before that question can be answered. We Democrats are blessed with a lot of strong candidates for the Presidency and for that we are grateful.

Clinton’s advice to Democrats: continue to make it clear we are not soft on security and that we can bring solid solutions and diplomacy to address the instability in the mid-east as well as address domestic problems at home. He believes that we can end the Palestinian / Israeli conflict as conditions are now to a point where both groups seek mutual peace. With the right diplomacy then peace is within our grasp but there are steps the U.S. must take in order to guarantee peace. He encouraged Bush to go for it by creating a positive climate for peace in the mid-east.