http://www.danielpipes.org/article/1759
Pipes wrote that "the Muslim effort to be accepted in the United States is not a particularly difficult one, for enlightened Americans make persistent efforts to understand Islam and portray Muslims positively. This results from a sense of guilt about past prejudice, plus a multiculturalist impulse. Jewish and Christian groups often join with Muslim counterparts to fight what they perceive as bias." He adds that non-Muslim lawyers frequently provide Muslim defendants with pro bono services and non-Muslim institutions make funding available.
Future Attacks
In this context, it is important to understand the motivations and world of thought of extremist Muslims. Pipes defines an Islamist as one who believes Islam is the solution to every problem. "In America, an Islamist would be somebody who wants to replace the constitution with the Qur'an.2 It is a totalitarian movement that has much in common with fascism and Marxism-Leninism." He estimates that about 10-15 percent of Muslims in the world are Islamists, which is tantamount to well over a hundred million people. Pipes adds that the percentage is probably in the same order of magnitude among U.S. Muslims.
He forecasts: "There will be more attacks by Islamists on Americans. I can say this confidently because so many signs point in this direction. These assaults will awaken people. I expect it to be a one-way process of what I call education by murder. I do expect ever more Americans to worry; contrarily, I do not expect to hear many say, 'Well, I used to be worried about the threat of militant Islam, but no longer.' As time passes and more events occur, their assessment will become more realistic.
"As Islamists are dangerous, the methods to be used against them cannot be like those the United States usually applies to dissenters. However, much of the U.S. public is unprepared to discuss these matters; if one broaches the topic, one is accused of McCarthyism.
"One little-noticed development concerns the declaration of war. This used to be part of a military undertaking, but since World War II it has become defunct, and along with it the legal machinery that once went into gear. When President Bush says we are at war, it is a political statement, not a legal one."
The Main Determinant: Ideology
Pipes adds: "There is a gradual awareness developing of militant Islam existing not just in the hills of Afghanistan but within American society. This is unparalleled in our country's history, as the United States never seriously confronted fascism or communism internally, as Europe was forced to do. Americans certainly never experienced a hazard from an ideological source comparable to the Islamists.
"The focus on al-Qaeda is doubly misplaced. First, it is an umbrella group, rather than an actual organization. Second, it is a symptom of a much deeper attitude. The ideology is the key, not an organization. This ideology is a force in itself and not the result of socioeconomic conditions; it cannot be solved, for example, through a Marshall Plan type of response.
"Militant Islam cannot be compared to any segment of Christianity, Judaism, or Hinduism. These religions do not embody groups with totalitarian utopian ideologies that seek world hegemony. In fact, militant Islam resembles fascism and communism more than any religious movement.
"All we can do presently is prepare ourselves for worse to come. Eloquence and perceptivity did not make Churchill prime minister of Great Britain; it was the fall of France* that did so. In like fashion, those who are warning of the dangers of militant Islam will be turned to should a fall-of-France style disaster occur.
