One Year Later, Two Minutes of Silence, Millions of Questions

It's been one year since the London terrorist attacks on the city's public transit system. Fifty two lives were lost that day in July, and a new dimension was added to the global war on terror.

What's most frightening about these attacks, as was the case with 9-11, is that they were planned within the borders of the world's most successful democracies. In trying to capture the hearts and minds of the Arab world in the middle east, it seems that the UK, the US, France, and other European nations are losing sight of a battle on their own turf.

I will make no qualms about it: I am convinced that Islam is the biggest threat to the safety of the West. Muslims have no allegiance to anyone except their faith, a faith that demands the head of every "infidel" on the planet. This is a mindset that predates the U.S.' wrongful invasion of Iraq, that predates the Zionist movement, and that is turning the world community against each other.

Muslims living in the West don't harbor a nostalgic or romantic connection to their faith and homeland while living in a foreign land; they're pissed that their new neighbors don't share their beliefs. They don't want to become a part of their adopted countries, be it France, the U.S., or England, they prefer to sulk among their own, hating and plotting against everyone who is not like them. We saw this in France last summer when "la racaille," or ilk, emerged from the ghettos they've created for themselves to torch cities across the Republic. And it's too ironic that Danish embassies were torched and civilians were murdered during riots that ensued over cartoons that depicted the prophet Mohammed as a terrorist.
(Note: The editors of the Danish daily that published the infamous Mohammed cartoons should be tried for incitement of a riot as there was no need to run these cartoons in the first place. There was no precedent for these cartoons, as I learned at a lecture by the Danish Consular General here in NY at the Asia Society in April, other than to test the tolerance of the Danish Muslim population for cartoons about their faith. What a stupid experiment.)

I'm all for co-existence and peace and bla bla bla, but these people cannot be reasoned with, they cannot be trusted, they will cut your head off the minute you sit down at the negotiation table.

What's even more infuriating is that not only are they using violence to advance their jihad, they're using their enemies laws as well. Case in point, the trial of author/journalist Oriana Fallaci for "defaming Islam" in a book called The Force of Reason. The plaintiff, an Italian Muslim-activist, is filing suit against Fallaci under the guise of an Italian law that prohibits the defamation of faiths. Among other things Fallaci is accused of inciting hatred against Muslims (I would cite 9-11 as a more immediate example, but oh well).
(Note: I am grossly paraphrasing the gist of the Italian law under which Falacci is being tried.)

As I write this entry I am disappointed in myself for coming to the conclusion that in the middle of so much hate and violence in the world it could be so easy to point to just one enemy. But Islam's myopic view of the world is forcing people to take sides in the wake of the third world war. Make no mistake: fundamentalism in the U.S. is its own beast to be grappled with, but it hasn't manifested itself in the form of suicide attacks on civilians. We have been forced to make a decision, we have been summed up in an involuntary war and we're all complicit in its future...choices must be made.

Whose side are YOU on?