Following the hacking death of a British soldier by two alleged Islamic extremists, Prime Minister David Cameron said, "There is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act."
Winston Churchill thought otherwise, but he lived in a time before political correctness ran amok and drew on his personal experiences serving in the Sudan and in the Crimean War.
In his 1899 book "The River War," Churchill described what he witnessed in countries where Islam ruled: "Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyzes the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith."
Churchill said only Christianity had sheltered Europe and were it not for that faith, "the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome."
Given the secular condition of modern Europe and the huge influx of radical Muslims, many of whom carry with them earthly agendas, which prime minister is more credible?
One of the men arrested in London spoke of his motivation: "The only reason we have killed this man today is because Muslims are dying daily by British soldiers."
What Westerners struggle to figure out is how to distinguish Islamists from moderate Muslims and how to recognize the true Islamist when they are taught to deceive us about their radical beliefs.
A documentary released last fall, but largely ignored, might be a useful guide. It's called "Jihad in America: The Grand Deception." The film by the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT), (www.granddeception.com), exposes the tangled web of Islamic front groups in America that are backed by the radical Muslim Brotherhood.
The documentary reveals how these groups have penetrated the highest levels of American government and culture. Zuhdi Jasser, who heads the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, says, "Their dream is the creation of an Islamic state ... their strategy in America is to use America's freedom and liberties in order to achieve that dream." The same might be said of Britain.
Douglas Farah, former West Africa bureau chief for The Washington Post says, "It doesn't matter what we say about them. It matters tremendously what they say about themselves and to each other."
It was what they say about themselves and about their goals that is most revealing. In the film, the late Israr Ahmed of the Islamic Society of North America says: "I find there are only two things which are open to our movements: ballot or bullet, nothing in between."
In "The Grand Deception," Amir Abdel Malik Ali of the Islamic Circle of North America, speaking at a 2003 event in Philadelphia said, "Democracy does not equal freedom. No, we do not want to democratize Islam. We want (to) Islamize democracy."
And Abdur-Rahman Muhammad, a former Muslim militant, offered, "Ultimately the Muslim Brotherhood wants to establish an Islamic state in America. They believe that Western civilization is corrupt, evil, is decadent and they want to dismantle it."
Former FBI special agent Robert Stauffer headed an investigation in the 1980s of Muslim Brotherhood finances, according to the film's narrator. Stauffer discovered that the Islamic Society of North America, another Muslim Brotherhood front located outside Plainfield, Ind., had received "Millions and millions of dollars" through its North American Islamic Trust, which, he says, "served as a financial holding company for Muslim Brotherhood-related groups." The money, he says, was wired into the United States from Islamic countries, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Egypt, Malaysia and Libya.
Much of this was prior to Sept. 11, but given the existence and growth of Muslim student associations on American college campuses (the documentary says there are 40 such groups) and other Muslim organizations, the money must still be available.
The British and Americans can listen to politicians who aid and abet the advance of radical Islam, or they can heed the words of Sayyid Syeed, director of the Islamic Society of North America. Film footage shows Syeed speaking in Chicago in 2006. He said, "Our job is to change the Constitution of America."