Muslim journalist sees resurgent, tough-minded West

Writing in the Middle East Times, Youssef M. Ibrahim, a former Mideast reporter for the New York Times, has a message to his fellow Muslims that is really a very hopeful message for our side. He says the jihadis of the Muslim world have gone mad, killing far more of their fellow Muslims in numerous countries than they are killing non-Muslims, and that their attacks on the West, far from running into the sort of spineless response we have been decrying of late in our English cousins, are creating a re-moralized, unified West that will clamp down on Muslims, hard:

Do the cowardly jihadis who recruit suicide bombers really think that they will force the U.S. Army and British troops out of Iraq by killing hundreds of innocent Iraqis? U.S. troops now have bases and operate in Iraq but also from Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman.

The only accomplishment of jihadis is that now they have aroused the great “Western Tiger.” There was a time when the United States and Europe welcomed Arab and Muslim immigrants, visitors and students, with open arms. London even allowed all dissidents escaping their countries to preach against those countries under the guise of political refugees.

Well, that is all over now. Time has become for the big Western vengeance.

Visas for Arab and Muslim young men will be impossible to get for the United States and Western Europe. Those working there will be expelled if they are illegal, and harassed even if their papers are in order.

Airlines will have to right to refuse boarding to passengers if their names even resemble names on a prohibited list on all flights heading to Europe and the United States.

What is more important to remember is this: When the West did unite after World War II to beat communism, the long Cold War began without pity. They took no prisoners. They all stood together, from the United States to Norway, from Britain to Spain, from Belgium to Switzerland. And they did bring down the biggest empire. Communism collapsed.

I fear those naïve Muslims who think that they are beating the West have now achieved their worst crime of all. The West is now going to war against not only Muslims, but also, sadly, Islam as a religion.

Would that it were so! From your mouth to God’s ears!

Posted by Lawrence Auster at August 03, 2005 09:55 AM | Send