Does the West have a perception problem when it comes to Islam?

Raymond Ibrahim, editor of The Al-Qaeda Reader, asks some valid questions in response to Tariq Ramadan's recent one-way talk via satellite at Georgetown University.

Tariq Ramadan is a grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, and currently a research fellow at Oxford University. He was unable to address Georgetown in person because the U.S. government refuses to grant him a visa.

While Ibrahim's entire article is worth reading, I extract here for you his response to Ramadan's charge that the West is obsessed with radical Islam to the point of refusing to even see that the vast majority of the world's Muslims are actually moderate and peaceful.

As Ibrahim writes:

[E]ven if we were to agree with Ramadan that the vast majority of Muslims are “moderates” and that, say, only a mere 20 percent of Muslims are “literalists,” that simply means that some 200 million Muslims in the world today are dedicated enemies of the infidel West. At any rate, when it comes to instilling terror, numbers are of no significance. It took only 19 to wreak great havoc and destruction on American soil on 9/11. It won’t take much more to duplicate that horrific day. This is precisely why, to use Ramadan’s own words, “we are obsessed by the few [radical Muslims] and not seeing the many [moderate Muslims].” That most Muslims are good, law-abiding citizens and that only a mere minority of the umma, say, 200 million, are hell-bent on destroying the West — how is that supposed to be any comfort to us?

This is a question that Muslims will have to answer. The bottom line is that there is in fact a dangerous element that operates under the banner of Islam.

If the West seems obsessed, well, the West is not accustomed to burying its head in the sand, so to speak. The Western way is to identify problems and then try to solve them. Critical thinking is revered - as are satire and mockery - as that's what it takes to root out tyranny, oppression - and yes, terrorism.

Heather MacDonald challenges "war on terror hysteria"

Gene Expression, the blog, posts an interview with conservative writer Heather MacDonald in which she wonders about the "existential threat" the United States purportedly faces from Islamists. Her thoughts:

"For all the barbarity of popular entertainment and the historical ignorance of the American public, American civilization and the West generally are at the top of their games-contrary to war on terror hysteria that holds that we face an 'existential threat' from Islamists. The rate of technological innovation is higher than at any point in human history and will undoubtedly only accelerate in the future. We are reaping a whirlwind of unfathomable benefits from scientific research.

"Would I prefer it if our elites had the taste of 18th century aristocratic patrons and were subsidizing the likes of Mozart, Haydn, and Tiepolo, instead of Jeff Koons and Richard Prince? A thousand times, yes! But as much as I yearn to live in a world that could produce such beauty, I have to recognize that this is the best of all possible times to be alive. I don't know how many of us would give up our astounding array of choices, despite their costs above all in family stability, to go back to a time of more restricted individual autonomy."

Australia "confronts" as opposed to co-opts radical Islamism

In the Times of London, Gerard Henderson, former chief of staff for Australian Prime Minister John Howard explains why Australia takes such a hard-nosed approach to Islamist extremism.

According to Henderson, this is because:

• Most radical Muslims in Australia are second or even third generation Lebanese- or North African-Australians

• Some are Anglo-Australians who converted to Islam

• Almost none are asylum seekers or illegal immigrants

In other words, almost all Muslim extremists in Australia are homegrown.

This means, says Henderson, that Australia cannot afford to be other than “direct, event blunt” when it comes to dealing with Islamic radicals down under.

Muslim leaders are advised, says Henderson, to keep their communities free of radicals as they are a threat to moderate Muslims as well.

Community leaders who adopt extremist viewpoints - deny the Holocaust or glorify those aspects of Islamic law that are inconsistent with Australian values- are advised to do themselves and Australia a favor by emigrating to a country that would be more supportive of theirs. The Australian government takes the position that any Australian citizen or resident ought to embrace Australian values and culture and hence, imams are advised to address their congregations in English.

And, as noted here earlier, Australia is no longer keen to allow more Saudi-funded mosques to be built.