Moorthy S. Muthuswamy - Defeating Political Islam: The New Cold War

Moorthy S. Muthuswamy

Foreword by Steven Emerson

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efeating Political Islam is one of those rare books on radical Islam that is not afraid to pull any punches in its analysis and proscription on how to deal with the growing menace of radical Islam, or as Dr. Muthuswamy calls it "political Islam." This is a book that will provoke you. It will fascinate you. It will push your thinking way past the limits of the politically correct discourse about militant Islam in the United States today. This is also a book that may anger you. Dr. Muthuswamy has written a book that contains some of the best analysis I have ever read about the roots of contemporary Islamic violence stemming from the Koran and sharia, but it also contains recommendations and opinions that I strongly disagree with. Even so, this book will make you think out of the box about the problems of radical Islamic proliferation in the world today.

It is a book that covers the entire spectrum of thought about how to stop the spread of political Islam, which includes not only the violent Islamic terrorist groups but also the "peaceful" ones the ones that pretend to be moderate in public but in fact represent radical Islamic theology. Dr. Muthuswamy, in authoring Defeating Political Islam, has tackled problems that the West refuses to acknowledge. In their denial and cognitive dissonance, Western regimes, commentators, reporters, and intellectuals have tried to portray all Islamic movements and groups, with the exception of the manifestly violent ones, as organizations the West can have reasonable dialogue with and that can be integrated into the pluralism of the West. These are the same government officials and journalists who now refuse to even utter the term "rad ical Islam," instead insisting on using the sanitary and meaningless terms "radical" or "extremist" without any modifiers, as if Islamic extremism or Islamic terrorism does not exist. This raises the question as to whether we should drop the terms "white racists" or "eco-terrorists" and instead just use the terms "racists" and "terrorists," making them indistinguishable from Islamic terrorists. Of course, this attempt to sanitize the term "Islamic terrorism" is but part of a much grander effort to whitewash Islamic extremism and take away the onus of responsibility from the Muslim world for producing such extremists. In the end, if we are not allowed to identify our enemy, how can we hope to defeat it?

Dr. Muthuswamy has produced a truly original piece of intellectual thinking and analysis that stands as a counterweight to the politically correct and dangerously misleading analysis produced by the empty vessels at the New York Times, the US State Department, the Brookings Institution, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, to name just a few of the high priests in Washington, DC, who pretend they know what they are talking about.

As I said before, I don't agree with all of Dr. Muthuswamy's analysis and recommendations. I do believe in the existence of genuine moderate Islam, although obviously in the minority but authentic just the same. I don't believe that Muslim populations should be expelled from Europe for the violence their communities are producing, although that leaves me without an answer to the growing threat to free speech by those radicalized Muslim populations who deem any criticism of Islam as an insult deserving of death, not to mention the proliferation of localized sharia law invocations in Europe that threaten the basic foundation of the West, the separation of church and state, as well as the rights of women not to be killed or beaten. I don't believe that the Koran is intrinsically violent: I believe that the interpreters of the Koran, who have never undergone a reformation and have been in control of the Islamic religious establishment, are the ones who instill the violence in those that are inspired by the verses in the Koran that call for killing Jews and Christians. For the Koran also has verses that say you have to make friends with Jews and Christians. Regrettably, the dominant interpreters of the Koran and the writers of the Hadith have been radical from day one. So in the end, the Koran is what you want it to be. Dr. Muthuswamy, however, has made a cogent argument, backed up by impressive statistical analysis, that diverges from my belief. Am I being naive or is he wrong? Only one who reads his book can tell.

Dr. Muthuswamy is a brilliant writer and analyst who has written an opus that needs to be read by the public and policymakers as well. You will find yourself tremen dously enlightened by the genuinely original analysis Dr. Muthuswamy has done in examining Islamic texts. You may find yourself disagreeing with some of what he writes or recommends (as I do), but I was fascinated to read his findings. He brings genuine scholarship to the debate that is sorely missing in Western circles. His book is designed to make you think out of the proverbial box that is rampant in current circular and insular thinking about how to contain radical Islam. This is a book that needs to be read by anyone concerned with understanding the full scope of the problem Western societies face from a growing radical Islamic movement that seeks to shut down debate, claim all critics are racists, intimidate writers, and challenge our most valuable freedom that of free speech.

Steven Emerson

Executive Director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism and author of Jihad Incorporated: A Guide to Militant Islam in the US

We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore We will be united in our common interests You will once again be fighting for our freedom-not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution, but from annihilation We are fighting for our right to live-to exist! We are going to survive!

Portions of a speech delivered before launching the decisive battle to defeat and destroy alien invaders (from Independence Day -a 1996 Hollywood blockbuster movie)

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