Hugh Fitzgerald, writing on Jihad Watch,  is the perfect accompaniment to today's articles by James Arlandson  and Andrew Bostom  covering the problematic nature of Islam, as handed down by Muhammad and practiced through many centuries.

Fitzgerald is scathing in his criticism of Bush administration policy and much—admired historian Bernard Lewis, for failing to come to terms with the fundamental problems posed by the scripture and practice of actual Islam. He confronts not the idealized or occasionally liberalized versions we might wish for, but what the record teaches us. It is strong medicine, and I find myself remarkably unwilling to write—off the faith of a billion—plus people. At the same time, it strikes me as utterly foolish to operate in a make—believe world, just to avoid facing hard facts and taking hard decisions.

Highly recommended.

Excerpt:

More people in the government need to be less prodigal in attempting to bribe Muslims into what can only be very temporary good behavior. The Jihadist impulse, and the hostility inculcated against Infidels, does not go away, and does not depend on the wealth or poverty of the Believers. It depends only on the strength and power with which the texts of Islam are received, distributed, believed. That's it.

If the hundreds of billions now being spent on foreign aid, direct or indirect, to Muslim countries, was instead spent on nuclear and solar and wind energy, on conservation measures, on figuring out how to appeal to and enlarge the fissures and resentments within Islam —— of non—Arab Muslims for Arab supremacist ideology within Islam, of Shi'a for Sunni oppressors in Pakistan and Iraq and Bahrain and Kuwait —— it would save —— oh, save enough to save Social Security, and give everyone in the United States a full scholarship to college, and a few other things like that.

Hat tip: Alyssa

Thomas Lifson   4 12 05