It’s a Start (Maybe)
In a striking admission, George W. Bush said the other day that that ''We actually misnamed the war on terror. It ought to be [called] the struggle against ideological extremists who do not believe in free societies and who happen to use terror as a weapon to try to shake the conscience of the free world.'' From an article by Daniel Pipes in the Chicago Sun-Times entitled, ‘Terrorism’ battle is really fight against Islamism. You know, I said as much on September 11, 2001. Islam has not undergone an ideological and cultural renaissance as has Christianity and Judaism. That means, it has not undergone the transformation from taking doctrines and ancient texts literally, to taking them metaphorically—symbolically. Yes, I understand there are a lot of Christians who profess literal belief in the Bible and every word of it. But, alas, they too have been infected with some degree of rationality and reality, for few of them actually practice the literalness they preach. They’ve been infected with the American Spirit, which runs starkly contrary to every tenet of their dogmatism. Perhaps herein lies the root cause of the reluctance to peg this conflict for what it really is—and what it really...