by Cal Thomas
Terry Jones, the Florida “minister” who threatened to burn the Koran on the anniversary of Sept. 11, is as much a distraction from the real challenge facing America as was Sen. Joseph McCarthy when it came to communism. Communism was (and remains in its Chinese incarnation) a real threat. But radical Islam — rabid, advancing, intolerant, subjugating — is potentially a bigger one and must be conquered.
Various apologists for the Nazis and communists in the media, academia and religion are now mostly forgotten and that’s the problem. Forgetting what happens when evil is accommodated leads to terrible consequences and more evil.
Some ancient wisdom about what must be done with evil is helpful for those who would pay attention: “You must purge the evil from among you” (Deuteronomy 22:21). Instead, we are tolerating, even welcoming evil, under the false assumption that evil can be neutered when it is in the midst of good. If that were so, the good works performed by various cultures would have long ago eradicated evil. Evil must not only be purged, it must be defeated.
The former co-chairs of the 9/11 Commission, Democrat Lee Hamilton and Republican Thomas Kean, write of the “Americanization” of al Qaeda leadership, reports the Washington Post. In a 43-page study by the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, Hamilton and Kean warn of the radicalization of Muslims inside the United States and how al Qaeda’s strategy is changing from big events, like airplane hijackings and attacks of mass destruction, to plotting for smaller actions designed to spread fear and instability across the country.
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