Jihad from page 43

Editorial

• That most advocates of political Islam
are non-violent, but ultimately share with
radical Islamists a desire to form Islamic
states. Therein rests the need for a sea
change within the Muslim community,
among radicals and moderates alike.
The West will be chasing splinter groups
of radical Islamists into the next century
unless pious Muslims, who believe in
Western nation states and their secular
system of law over the "Islamic state,' win
the internal debate among Muslims.
• So America must wake up! At stake
is the primacy of our Constitution and
governance. Expanding pockets of Europe
already are Islamicized.
How sobering is that?

Scary Brotherhood
Jasser narrates and was a major shaper
of the Clarion Fund documentary film
The Third Jihad-Radical Islam's Vision
for America. The film is largely inspired
by the FBI discovery of the Muslim
Brotherhood's Grand Jihad Manifesto
calling for the destruction of America
and creation of a radical Islamist the-
ocracy instead. The manifesto calls for
moderate groups, mosques and Islamic
centers, strategically positioned, to weak-
en our culture and promote the accep-
tance of Sharia (Islamic law).
The Muslim community must lead
the charge against radical Islam, but it
needs outside help. "All of us as American
citizens are threatened equally by this
threat," Jasser told me.
Jasser acknowledged that the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security has
done a fine job preventing dozens of
attacks on our citizens domestically
and abroad since 9-11. But he stressed
that our security also demands Muslim
reform. "And thus all faith groups in
America:' he told me, "need to become
part of facilitating a project to coun-
ter the influence and ideologies of the
Muslim Brotherhood and its splinter
groups around the world if we are to have
a sustainable security against radical
Islam."
The Brotherhood, of course, is a pos-
sible successor to toppled President Hosni
Mubarak in Egypt, Israel's southern
neighbor.

Fighting Back From Within
Appeasing political Islam will not work.
Political Islam is based on Sharia law,
which doesn't recognize the complete
equality of minorities the way the U.S.
Constitution does. The answer lies in
activities of all faiths helping Muslims
reveal the gravity of Islamism and gov-
ernmental imposition of Sharia law.
American Jewish groups are positioned
to articulate this threat if they have the
courage to speak up. As Jasser explained,

44

September 8 • 2011

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"Not only has Israel been dealing with
the threat of radical Islam in Hamas,
but the Jewish community has suffered
as a minority when living in nations
under Islamist control, such as Iran and
Saudi Arabia, and thus has an additional
dimension in understanding this threat."
Radical Islam evolved out of the ideol-
ogy of the Muslim Brotherhood in the
early 20th century with Sayyid Qutb and
Hassan Al-Banna at the fore. Through the
last century, whether expressed by the
Muslim Brotherhood or the Wahhabi rad-
icals in Saudi Arabia, radical Islam has
been a counter response to the fascists or
dictators in control. The moderates who
are anti-fascist and anti-Islamist, says
Jasser, have been lost in the din of this
conflict.
"Until these societies can begin to
foster an intellectual engagement among
Islamists, anti-Islamists and non-
Islamists," Jasser told me, "I cannot see
the regional neighborhood changing
much."

Solvable Hurdles
Democratization alone is not the solution.
Elections, influenced by Arab and Islamist
propaganda, have brought to power
Islamists, such as Hamas, who prey on
their own as well as Jews and the West.
"Thus we need the establishment of lib-
eral institutions that can enable education
about minority rights and the pre-emi-
nence of societies based in one law over
theocracy, over autocracy, over monarchy
and tribalism," Jasser told me. "Until that
process begins to happen, the environment
will not change, but instead move toward
short-term appeasements and long-term
stagnation
The AILC recommendations for further
bolstering the Obama administration's
National Strategy on Counterterrorism are
thoughtful:
• Publicly define the ideology of Al

Greenberg's View

Qaida and the other terror groups we seek
to defeat;
• Distinguish Muslims who practice the
religion of Islam from Islamists who dis-
tort Islam to justify their theocratic, statist
agenda;
• Recognize that genuine leaders among
U.S. Muslims possess the theological legiti-
macy, authority and credibility to counter
Islamist ideology and movements from
within Islam;
• Enlist supportive Muslim groups to
help develop effective counter-radicaliza-
tion programs that affirm the principles of
liberty and individual rights;
• Distribute via the Internet compelling
narratives that counter the online ideologi-
cal indoctrination and recruitment success
of Al Qaida; and
• Help expose Islamist oppression, vio-
lence and terror — and contrast that to
values in the West.

Further Action
The film The Third Jihad serves up other
solutions to fighting radical Islam:
• Find options to oil dependence, which
fuels radical Islam, a root cause of Islamist
terror;
• Demand the end to incitement of
Muslim children to lessen their suscepti-
bility to Islamist propaganda and potential
recruitment to terrorist groups;
• Urge human rights for citizens of for-
eign countries;
•Ask Muslims and their leaders to stand
against Sharia replacing Western law; and
• Back government leaders who stand
up to radical Islam.
I'm encouraged that Dr. Jasser thinks the
war on radical Islam is winnable. As he put
it: "We will win if enough people stand up
for the American freedom and liberties
that our forefathers fought to create."
That's a message worth pondering and
heeding as the commemoration of 9-11
nears. II

Fix Israel's
Fire Service

T

he government bears
the brunt of the blame
for the worst forest
fire ever in Israel's history,
according to a draft report
on the 2010 Carmel blaze. It's
a telling, but not surprising
finding considering it quickly
became clear that the
Netanyahu administration was
ill prepared and ill equipped
to fight what became a deadly
firebomb.
State Comptroller Micha
Lindenstrauss submitted
the bad news to government
officials, who have until early
September to respond. Their
response must be focused and
sweeping to be credible.
The disaster over four days
last December killed 44 people,
injured more than 30 others,
damaged or destroyed 250
homes, forced 17,000 residents
to evacuate, consumed 5
million trees, necessitated
an international fire fighting
brigade and inspired a
worldwide relief effort.
Government leaders held
accountable include Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
Interior Minister Eli Yishai,
Public Security Minister
Yitzhak Aharonovitch and
Finance Minister Yuval
Steinitz, JTA reported.
Notably, the report charges
that the interior minister
did not sufficiently address
fire service issues identified
in past reports and did not
bring national reform despite
questionable government
decisions, according to
Haaretz.
For example, the fire
service, so critical to the
country's well-being, had only
1,500 firefighters to serve
7 million Israelis. Moreover,
there are woodlands up north
and plenty of buildings in all
the big cities – despite Israel's
desert-like image down south.
For Netanyahu, upgrading
the fire service, starting with
overcoming the bad advice he
got when it came to budgeting
for it, is paramount.

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