How to end the jihad

If you’re on Longboat Key, it’s a good bet you’ve been talking about how crowded Publix has been or how much time you need to add to your trips to the mainland. Season is at full throttle. 

Or maybe you have tuned in to the Town Hall drama over who should pay for underground utility lines in the town’s neighborhoods.

Or, just as likely, you’re suffering from “PCTSD” — Presidential Campaign Traumatic Stress Disorder. You’re sick of hearing about the latest poll. 

All of these phenomena, perhaps, have taken some of your attention away from the chaos in the Middle East and spreading globally. 

But it’s not going away. Not by a long shot. And if you read or saw interviews this week with Saeed Abedini, the American pastor who was imprisoned for more than three years in Iran, surely you were sickened profoundly to hear the horrific treatment he and former Marine Amir Hekmati endured at the hands of the Iranian regime. This is the state sponsoring terrorism worldwide. And even while fighting its rival, ISIS, the two are commonly committed to all-out jihad against the Western world.

Meanwhile, for more than two years, we Americans have been waiting for Barack Obama to do what he said he would — destroy ISIS and the jihadists. But it’s not happening. 

In that vein, we are reprinting excerpts from “10 Steps to End Jihad against the West,” by Craig Biddle, editor of the Objective Standard. Biddle is right: “The jihad against the West persists only because the West has not chosen to end it. This is a moral atrocity.” Here are three of his 10 steps to stop the jihad: 

3

Acknowledge and assert our absolute right to self-defense — and recognize that individuals, groups and regimes that engage in or call for jihad against the West thereby forfeit their rights entirely.

Westerners must acknowledge that we have an absolute right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness— and that this includes the right to self-defense: the right to do whatever is necessary to eliminate threats posed by regimes, groups or individuals who seek to kill us or otherwise violate our rights.

Although Muslims have a right to believe whatever they want to believe … they do not have a right to act on their beliefs if doing so involves committing murder or otherwise violating rights. There is no such thing as a right to practice religious tenets that call for rights violations. The notion of a right to violate rights is a patent contradiction in terms.

We must also recognize that although rights are inalienable (meaning they cannot be taken away), they are not unrelinquishable. One can relinquish or forfeit one’s rights by violating the rights of others. If a person, group or regime engages in murder or terrorism, or aids in such activities, or incites others to engage in such activities, he or it thereby forfeits his or its rights entirely.

Jihadists and their supporters have no rights. They are, by their own chosen actions, right-less animals. Thus, when we kill them in retaliation, we do not violate their rights. We cannot violate that which does not exist.

5

Use the full force of our militaries to eliminate all Islamic regimes and jihadist groups that have supported or executed attacks against our countries or our countrymen.

Which military strategies and weapons will best serve the purpose of eliminating the Islamic regimes and jihadist groups that have attacked the West is a matter for military experts and generals to decide. But all thinking and decision making pertaining to this matter should be guided by the principle that our respective governments and militaries have a moral obligation to eliminate the regimes and jihadists who have attacked us — and to do so as quickly as possible and with minimal risk to the lives of our civilians and soldiers.

Western nations in general — and the United States in particular—have extremely powerful militaries. America’s military alone could eliminate any Islamic regime or jihadist group on the planet in a matter of days (if not hours) — if the U.S. government unleashed its forces. And America’s military combined with those of other Western nations could eliminate the entire field of enemy regimes and groups in short order —if the West chose to do so.

The jihad against the West persists only because the West has not chosen to end it. This is a moral atrocity. 

Westerners have a selfish, moral obligation to end this assault on our lives and the lives of our loved ones. Permitting this enemy to remain in existence is like permitting known serial killers to roam our neighborhoods. It is sheer insanity.

It is time to end the insanity. It is time to end the jihad.

Importantly, by eliminating these murderous groups and regimes, we would not only solve the immediate problem of their existence; we would also strike a significant blow to the root of the longer-term problem. 

By summarily eliminating the existing Islamic regimes and jihadist groups that have attacked the West, we would significantly discredit the religion that motivates jihad and that will continue spawning more jihadists until it is discredited.

Although, as noted above, we cannot eliminate Islam (a body of ideas), we can discredit it — and doing so is an essential aspect of winning this war. By demonstrating to jihadists and would-be jihadists that their fantasy God is powerless against the West’s very real militaries — by showing them that Westerners can easily destroy the entire Muslim world if we so choose — we would show them that jihad is a thoroughly hopeless cause.

Of course, no matter what the West does now, some pre-existing jihadist cells will erupt and murder or attempt to murder more Westerners. At this point, nothing can stop that. We live in a causal environment, and Western governments and leaders have permitted these Islamic regimes and jihadist groups to remain in existence and to plan, plot, recruit and develop cells for so long that future attacks by existing cells are a certainty. The question is: Will we tackle the broader problem now and thus reduce the number and intensity of future attacks — or not?

If we fail to eliminate the jihad-sponsoring regimes and jihadist groups, not only will existing jihadist cells attack the West; new jihadist cells will continue to form and attack as well. If, on the other hand, we end these regimes and groups now, we will cut our losses dramatically and take a giant step toward normal, jihad-free living. The correct choice couldn’t be clearer.

7

Acknowledge that jihadists and their sponsoring regimes bear full responsibility for all death and destruction resulting from retaliation necessitated by their aggression.

If a gang of thugs opens fire on a group of concertgoers, and if a concertgoer draws a gun and fires back at the gang members — thereby killing an innocent bystander — who is morally responsible for the bystander’s death? The gang of thugs is, and every thinking adult knows this.

This is a matter of the law of causality: He who initiates physical force against people is morally responsible for any and all death and destruction caused by the retaliatory force he thereby necessitates.

The same principle applies to jihadists’ attacks against the West. When the West’s use of retaliatory force against Islamic regimes and jihadist groups leads to the deaths of innocents, their deaths are fully the responsibility of the regimes and groups that initiated aggression and thus necessitated retaliation.

Of course, leftists and other apologists for jihad will deny this. But their words have no bearing on the laws of nature. Unlike “Allah,” the law of causality is real. People can deny it, but their denials have no bearing on the fact. 

Just as people can deny the law of gravity but cannot alter that it exists, so too they can deny causal connections regarding human choices and actions, but they cannot alter the fact these connections exist.

Causal connections are not matters of opinion; they are matters of fact. When a person, group or regime necessitates retaliatory force, he or it is responsible for the consequences of that retaliatory force.

For Craig Biddle’s complete “10 Steps to End Jihad against the West,” go to: theobjectivestandard.com/2015/11/ten-steps-to-end-jihad-against-the-west/. Published Nov. 29 in the Objective Standard.