The 'root causes' of Islamist terrorism do not lie in poverty or western imperialism, but an age old conflict between reason and revelation.
Los Angelenos commemorate the jihadist attacks on America of September 11th.
Robert Sibley, a senior writer, presents analysis in The Ottawa Citizen, Jan 3, 2011.
As political theorist Barry Cooper argues in his book, New Political Religions, or, An Analysis of Modern Terrorism, the Islamists, like the Nazis and Communists, are motivated more by a "disease of the spirit" than materialist aspirations.
... They imagine Islam spreading across the globe and the establishment of a worldwide caliphate based on shariah law. They see themselves empowered by Allah to bring about this new world order by destroying a civilization they regard as spiritually empty. Thus, Islamism constitutes a political religion of apocalyptic proportions.
They ultimately seek the transformation of the West to accommodate Islam. Chandra Muzaffar, a widely respected Malaysian Islamic scholar, writing in a 2006 book, The New Voices of Islam, captures this spiritual aspiration: "Islam and the post-Enlightenment secular West are diametrically opposed to one another. Muslims will then realize that unless they transform the secular world of the West, that vision of justice embodied in the Koran will never become a reality."
The challenge for Islamists, obviously, is whether they can achieve that transformation better through demographic domination over the next few decades or through violence.
The challenge for Westerners, perhaps not so obviously, is whether they will awaken in time from their multicultural slumbers to protect their cultural heritage and avoid, possibly, a new dark age.
Who is at war with democracy? Why? "The Third Jihad" explains the religio-political Jihadist movement seeking political and cultural dominance over the West (which includes modern Israel).
The documentary film, "The Third Jihad," features Muslim-American reformist, Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, exposing the character of the Jihad movement to spread Islamic rule throughout the world. The current Jihad (manifested in the chronic Islamist war to conquer Israel, the 9/11 attacks on NYC, D.C. and Pennsylvania, London's 7/7 Transport bombings, and the Islamist wars to control Iraq and Afghanistan) renews an historic precedent of 1400 years to spread the dominance of their version of Islam.
The film features Muslims and Islamism-experts explaining and demonstrating the goals of Islamic transformation among the non-Muslim world.
The Third Jihad is available to view online for free between September 9 - 12 2009.
Libyan Pres. Moammar Khadafi has persuaded the U.K. to release the Libyan Pan Am Flight #103 bombing convict on the testimony of non-specialist physicians (to the dismay of the families of 270 victims, 189 of them American). U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama is reported to be announcing an Arab-instigated initiative at the September convening of the United Nations which will compel the Jewish state of Israel to sacrifice strategically vulnerable territory to form a hostile, Islamist state of Palestine. Libyan Pres. Khadafi intends to attend - setting-up his Beduin tent in the midst of a partly Jewish, New Jersey community (against the cautioning of U.S. authorities) to send a statement to the world.
Students of history will recognize that the Jihad which confronts the West is a religio-cultural imperative. It is a continuation of the centuries-old Crusades by Muslims against Christians and Jews. Muslim pirates from the four Barbary States - Tripoli, Morocco, Tunis, and Algiers - plundered ships carrying Crusaders and pilgrims to Jerusalem before 1295 (and sold many Christians into slavery in North Africa).
In May, 1801, the United States refused to succumb to the increasing demands of the Pacha of Tripoli; in return, the Pacha declared war against the States. While Tripoli was not a strong power and little effort was necessary to watch and blockade it, the fear was that the other Barbary powers would join against the United States. The United States sent naval squadrons into the Mediterranean under the slogan of "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute!"
In 1805 Marines stormed the Barbary pirates' harbor fortress stronghold of Derna (Tripoli), commemorated in the Marine Corp Hymn invocation "To the Shores of Tripoli."
American Tea Party-er, Miss Olga celebrated Independence Day by recognizing that the same, religiously motivated Jihadism which sold American Pilgrims into slavery off the Barbary Coast motivating the U.S. to form its Navy, still aims to weaken the infidel world and conquer it under Muslim domination.
The original lyrics to Francis Scott Key's 1805 national anthem were a tribute to the Navy and Marines victory over the Barbary pirates. The lyrics include the following:
And pale beamed the Crescent, its splendor obscured
By the light of the Star Spangled flag of our nation.
Where each radiant star gleamed a meteor of war,
And the turbaned heads bowed to its terrible glare.
Francis Scott Key depicts the conflict as between the Muslim flag of Tripoli (with its crescent, now obscured) and the 'star-spangled' American flag -- standing for a new, rising power, and an altogether different system overcoming and surpassing the old. And of course, this is the source of the imagery and language for the Star-Spangled Banner. Prof. Michael Oren, author of "America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present" (later appointed to serve as Israel's Ambassador to the US) addressed this in his speech (exclusive video on DemoCast).
According to Islamic culture, any peace treaty between Muslims and infidels is only temporary - a respite to be used until the Muslims can gain enough strength to defeat and conquer the infidels.
