Steyn: Wake up, Folks -- It's War!

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The Genius (need I even say the name 'Mark Steyn'?) weighs in at the Spectator with an invocation not unlike that which sallied forth from this channel but a few days ago. To wit: it's a war, folks. The knuckleheads who fail to understand this simple, vetted concept are going to get a lot more innocent people killed.

...Madrid and London - along with other events such as the murder of Theo Van Gogh - are, in essence, the opening shots of a European civil war. You can laugh at that if you wish, but the Islamists’ most often-stated goal is not infidel withdrawal from Iraq but the re-establishment of a Muslim caliphate living under Sharia that extends to Europe; and there’s a lot to be said for taking these chaps at their word and then seeing whether their behaviour is consistent. Furthermore, there’s a lot more of the world that lives under Sharia than there was, say, 30 years ago: Pakistan adopted it in 1977, Iran in 1979, Sudan in 1984.... Fifty years ago, Nigeria lived under English common law; now, half of it’s in the grip of Islamic law. So, as a political project, radical Islam has made some headway, and continues to do so almost every day of the week: since the beginning of the year, for example, some 10 per cent of southern Thailand’s Buddhist population have abandoned their homes - a far bigger disruption than the tsunami, yet all but unreported in the Western press. And whatever one’s opinion of the various local conflicts around the world - Muslims vs Buddhists in Thailand, Muslims vs Hindus in Kashmir, Muslims vs Jews in the Holy Land, Muslims vs Russians in Chechnya, Muslims vs Christians in Africa - the fact is that the jihad has held out a long time against very tough enemies...

Mark Steyn: Wake up, folks - it’s war!