IT'S ALL IN THE DETAILS, DEAR

You are probably a decent Muslim—I don't know how old you are. But I get the impression that you've grown up in the west. So far your entire life experience and consequently your understanding of what islam is about has been forged in an era when Islam was probably at its lowest ebb in its entire 1400 year history. The caliphate was abolished back in the 1920's and for many years Islamic countries were constrained by western colonial control. Furthermore, globalization as we now know it, didn't exist. Which means that Muslims didn't have access to the modern technologies, especially the internet, created by the west. So your entire experience and understanding of islam was forged when Islam was basically the weakest its ever been.

But if you studied Islam a bit, especially what the classicists had to say—the Sunnah of the prophet means everything! It's right up there with the Koran in Islam. And clearly the Sunnah (example) of Muhammad is to lay low while powerless and then to advance and conquer once in a position of strength to do so.

It's no great mystery why you have fundamentally misunderstood your own religion. It's because islam was weak—in ALL of our lifetimes. That temporary quiescence, historically speaking, evidently fooled a whole lot of people—not only us, but apparently many Muslims as well.

But for all the reasons that Hugh Fitzgerald of Juhad Watch has elucidated, Islam is strong once again and now once again, it's true nature is revealed. It's a shock for all of us. But it shouldn't be. Its all in there in the Koran and the Sunnah combined. All of the explanation—backed up by the classical jurists—or what is happening today—is there.

So get you head out of your ass sublimer. The truth about your religion may well be as shocking to you as it is for us—but that's no damned excuse for your denial.

Thanks to Caroline, another Jihad Watcher, for this sage assessment.

But hold on Tonto! Here is the response of that Muslim to whom Caroline was writing:

First, let me laugh. As a Muslim who lived in Muslim lands all his life and who still travels around the Muslim world every year, I think I have a better perception not only than the commenters who analyze Islam behind a computer but also a better perception than Spencer and Hugh who seem to get all they learned about Islam from books and none from Muslims' daily lives. Your narrative of how Islam was strong weak and strong again seems apt for a James Bond novel. Although know you wish it were that simple it is not. First anyone who talks about the Muslim world and the west as a bloc or a body is a complete idiot who like to throw nuances out the window since his neurons cannot handle the complexity.

Imagine a Muslim telling you that you killed 6 million jews during world war II. What would you answer? You'd say that it wasn't me it was Nazi Germany. What if he said that that argument doesn't suffice because nazi Germany is still part of the west. So as long as the West killed 6 million Jews, you must have done so too. It just doesn't hold and that's what you are doing by thinking about islam/islamic countries as one bloc.

Clever dodge, but Caroline is not finished. She responds:

When you show me an example of Muslims waging a wide scale world war against the jihadists (or as some call them, "islamo-fascists") among you, like many westerners did against the Nazis, then I'll think you have a point. Until then, I believe that makes you complicit in their crimes. And you are. The fact is that the ummah stands up for every atrocity committed by Muslims all over the world (or merely remains silent in tacit agreement with those crimes.

Enough said. So in summation of this little exercise in critical thinking, I ask you dear reader, how did your own opinions shift or slide during this brief argument? Were you persuaded first by Caroline, only to be gently swayed by the retorts of the Muslim apologist? We know details matter, but are we diligent in gathering them. Do you have ALL the pertinent details? Are you an informed defender of the US Constitution, the faith of your own conscience, a clear-headed patriot, or are you a deceiver always hiding in the shadows of an argument, or worse, an apathetic appeaser of those who tickle your fancy but are merely an enemy in disguise? Do you truly know where you stand in this noisy crowd of political gamesmanship? Do you even care?

Or do you care profoundly, but feel that these matters seem so remote and complex, and beyond your reach when real life is grabbing at every thrust of your existence for attention, and you just don't have the time to wrestle with things beyond your immediate control? Perhaps none of the atrocities that have been visited upon far too many people of different faiths, nations, and personalities in this aggressive struggle with global Islam have affected you, but what if they do someday find you, or your family, and even your entire community? Will you be then suddenly and without previous investigation be prepared? Will you know how and why these things are happening?

Sure, it's a tough world, but it's up to you to know where you stand, one detail at a time. The silly virgin parable comes to mind. I'm not selling anything. Not books, not subscriptions, not CDs, not anything that pertains to this most pressing of matters, at least, not at the present time. But I do stridently believe that each person in America must come to grips with the global phenomenon of aggressive Islam which is fast-tracking everywhere one looks upon the populated face of the earth, and this educating process is warranted, is urgent and needs to occur within each American household sooner rather than later, in fact, right now.