Los Angeles Times In the days before Pope Benedict XVI's visit last Thursday to the Hagia Sophia complex in Istanbul, Muslims and Turks expressed fear, apprehension and rage. "The risk," according to Turkey's independent newspaper Vatan, "is that Benedict will send Turkey's Muslims and much of the Islamic world into paroxysms of fury if there is any perception that the pope is … [Read more...]

Osama bin Laden's "Peace to whoever follows guidance" Private Papers Whenever Osama bin Laden addresses the West he always prefaces his message with the simple statement, "Peace to whoever follows guidance." What exactly is bin Laden's purpose, and what exactly are Americans and Europeans to understand by this simple statement? Considering that this statement is always … [Read more...]

The Pope's Remark Revisited Private Papers The Pope is under attack. Once again, riots, demonstrations, and "retaliations" have sparked throughout the Muslim world. Major Muslim figures — political and religious — have condemned the Pope. The "Muslim Street" is burning his effigy. What great crime did the Pope commit, exactly? He quoted history. In a speech about faith and … [Read more...]

Private Papers If seeing Arab, Pakistani, or other "ethnic" Muslims menacingly wave their hands while lambasting the West is nothing strange, seeing homegrown, non-accented Western converts doing the same thing is. Along with John Walker Lindh, Richard Reid, Jose Padilla, and Germaine Lindsay — all Western converts to Islam and all terrorists — in the spotlight today are Abu … [Read more...]

The Hamilton Spectator While the West battles al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, the Taliban and other radical organizations and individuals, its more challenging task will be to marginalize the underlying ideology of radical Islam. Long dormant, but always alive, this ideology, based on literalist readings of Islam's texts, is history's latest and perhaps greatest incarnation of … [Read more...]