More Western liberal self-defeat on the Islam issue

A reader writes:

On the liberal and neocon distinction between Muslims and Islamists: If Muslims and Islamists were the same thing, we could take action to defend ourselves. If they were different, we must not take action, for fear of offending “Muslims” and causing them to go over to the Dark Side of the Force. We must engage in a struggle for their hearts and minds, surrendering our culture to show that we truly love them—unlike the Islamists who, I guess, are just using them.

LA replies:

Why must we do this? Because the Prime Directive of Liberalism is to avoid discriminating against anyone. If something we urgently need to do for our national defense would have the effect of discriminating unfairly against even one person, we must not do it. This was clearly the attitude of Alan Colmes in my contentious interview with him (which will posted online in the next week or so).

Posted by Lawrence Auster at May 06, 2006 01:19 PM | Send