USA: ANOTHER REVIEW OF STEYN'S "AMERICA ALONE"...

The risk in the rise of Islam

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the real problem is that capital-T Terrorists aren't the only problem. Steyn argues that "Islam itself is a political project." We see this reflected repeatedly in news reports from France, Denmark, and other European countries, in which disaffected Muslims chafe at the trammels of Western law. Such reports bring to mind the grim admonishment of James C. Bennett, businessman and president of the Anglosphere Institute: "Democracy, immigration, multiculturalism. Pick any two."

So where do we go from here? Steyn has some ideas. Noting reports that the majority of women in European battered women's shelters are Muslim, he suggests a serious push for women's rights in the Islamic world, which could fundamentally destabilize the Islamist project. Listing a number of Muslim terrorists who lived on the European dole - Muhammed Metin Kaplan, Abu Hamza, Abu Qatada, etc. - he posits that Euro-welfare should be remade. But ultimately, Steyn admits that Islam itself will have to be reformed if it is to become compatible with modernity.

Buried in ``America Alone'' is a question Steyn asks but leaves unanswered. Surveying the history of Islam as it has regressed over the last few generations, Steyn wonders: "We ... talk airily about `reforming' Islam. But what if the reform has already taken place, and jihadism is it?"

Some possibilities are too dark for even a book about the End of the World.

Pertinent Links:

1) The risk in the rise of Islam