West vs. Islamofascism: We're Too Nice

At Human Events, Deroy Murdock notes the difference between the West and Islamfascists:

"Throwing olive branches at Islamofascists is beyond futile. This is the War on Terror, not the Summer Olympics on Terror. If America won’t fight this like a war -- and win -- we might as well cut our losses, hand out the Korans, and start the mass conversions. "

It might seem a trifle harsh, but for years we have been making excuses, trying to talk to Islamic fanatics as if they were a trading partner or another democracy that can be reasoned with to some end. However, when the starting and ending point of the radical Islam position is "convert to Islam or die" there is not a lot of wiggle room in that position. When you are dealing with religious extremist, of any sort, you cannot expect to reach beyond fervor to rationality--it doesn't work.

Charles Krauthammer, a man whose writing I rarely agree with, makes a beautiful point:

"How dare you say Islam is a violent religion? I'll kill you for it'' is not exactly the best way to go about refuting the charge. But of course, refuting is not the point here. The point is intimidation.

First, Salman Rushdie. Then the false Newsweek report about Koran-flushing at Guantanamo. Then the Danish cartoons. And now, a line from a scholarly disquisition on rationalism and faith given in German at a German university by the pope.

And the intimidation succeeds: politicians bowing and scraping to the mob over the cartoons; Saturday's craven New York Times editorial telling the pope to apologize; the plague of self-censorship about anything remotely controversial about Islam -- this in a culture in which a half-naked pop star blithely stages a mock crucifixion as the highlight of her latest concert tour.

In today's world, religious sensitivity is a one-way street. The rules of the road are enforced by Islamic mobs and abjectly followed by Western media, politicians and religious leaders.

Indeed.