An Eye on the Enemy: Learn about our Foes

We are fighting a global war against an ideology that seeks to defeat secular democracies. There are a few websites and associated organizations that came to my attention recently that should be mandatory reading for all those who doubt that the stakes of the war are ideological at the core and not just global anti-American hate or fanatical “terror”. The “Islamist” ideology seeks to reinstate the Caliphate that is a remote historical reference to the administration of the Islamic Empire during the 7th to the 13th Centuries. In fact those who seek to impose such a rule are a truly similar threat to America and the west as communism and its global dreams of domination were in the Cold War. To all those who doubt the threat check out Hizb-ut-Tahrir’s website, which is working openly in England, Indonesia, Denmark and across the globe. Hizb ut Tahrir seeks to defeat secular democracies and put into place pseudo-Islamic theocracies and Islamic states. View the ramadhan.org site associated for a grim look into the propaganda that Islamist activists are promulgating about America. It makes Russia’s Pravda of the 1960’s appear to be a scientific journal. The Khilafah magazine and organization is also another arm of this global movement. It should be clear as these organizations come to the international surface that their openness is one of two signs. Either they are struggling and searching for followers, or it may be a sign that they are gaining confidence. The essential issue and challenge for our foreign and domestic policy should be to identify organizations like these, at least on their surface, as intellectual enemies of the west . As a Muslim I see them as intellectual enemies of Islam. The United States has in its 228 years created an environment in which I could not be more free to practice my faith. Any organization that seeks to impose an individual interpretation of Islam or any faith in a theocracy will profoundly limit my liberty and freedom and that is the ideology we are fighting. To defeat this clearly identifiable Islamist ideology is to, in fact, liberate Islam. Look at these websites and learn about the ideology we are fighting and the ideology moderate secular Muslims need to lead the charge against. This column can also be found online at this link at The Arizona Republic T