Submitted by Timothy Denton, Oct 17, 2007 14:30

The reason why the "long Telegram" has not been written is that the jihad against us is explicitly founded in a revealed religion, and we are uncertain whether the entire religion or certain parties within it are responsible. We do not yet have the evidence, or the evidence is not yet clear enough, whether our problem is with Islam, or factions within it pretending to speak for all of Islam.

The pessimist school would say that the jihadists are the orthodox faction. The optimist school would say that only the tiny minority needs to be countered. I think both are right. Islam is the problem but Muslims need not be. Other people may reach different conclusions, just as western peoples differed in our approach to dealing with Communism.

Periodically a challenge to western civilization comes along which threatens all of our precious assumptions about truth and reality. Islam is one such challenge. It raises issues that we had thought were settled by the Thirty Years' war or by the Enlightenment. We find to our horror that the compromises worked out within the bosom of western civilization have no bearing on our relations with islam, and we have to struggle once more to maintain ourselves.

It is no wonder we are squeamish about describing islam as the problem, and not simply the jihadist/salafist factions within it.

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