Islam, as practiced by a very large percentage of the Muslim population, is not compatible with Western values or worldview.
When I arrived at Harvard, across the hall was a strong, handsome freshman football player. He had come from a small town and told me that after a high school game, two guys came up to him and told him to sign on the dotted line. With that, he found himself accepted to the Harvard Class of ‘87. He confided in me that in his small town, he had never met a Jew before. Two of my roommates and I were his first examples of the species.
I thought about this fellow trying to figure out what Jews and Judaism were all about. The answer he would get would be very dependent on what type of Jew he met. I imagined him setting up meetings with an Ultraorthodox Jew, an Orthodox Jew, an Israeli, a Conservative Jew, a Reform Jew, and finally one completely disconnected from practicing Judaism. Each would give him a different answer as to what Judaism meant and what is expected of a Jew in his daily activities. How would he know who was right? How could he conclude what being Jewish actually and honestly meant? Why should he attach more weight to the Ultraorthodox Jew with his traditional black hat and garments than to the explanation of a Reform Jew and her ideas on the subject?
I was reminded of my old classmate when thinking about Islam. There was a Kuwaiti newspaper editor who famously quipped, “Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims.” That statement might be an exaggeration based on how you define “terrorist.” If a Christian shoots up a church, is he a criminal or a terrorist? Does a terrorist have to be someone who associates with a certain group with political aims forwarded by the violence employed by its members? While one might wish to quibble as to who or what is a terrorist, the cities and countries that have experienced Islamic terror is long and unfortunately growing: Israel, Madrid, London, Manchester, Nice, Strasbourg, Moscow, New York, Washington, Paris, and Brussels are some of the places that immediately spring to mind when thinking of Islamic terror against Western targets. So the question is whether Islam is inherently violently disposed to the West or not. And the answer would be like in the case of my linebacker friend: it would depend on whom you ask.
If one looks both at the West and Muslim majority countries, it would seem that most Muslims are not actively involved in terror or its direct support. With that said, one must note that over 50 percent of respondents in Muslim countries and over 70 percent of Palestinians supported what Hamas did on 10/7 in southern Israel. Most in the West found their actions abhorrent and through Hamas-made videos, eyewitness accounts, and post-attack confessions, the Western world learned of actions that defy human description. Whether it was the beheading of children or the torture of entire families or the mass rape and murder of Israeli women, the behavior that the majority of Muslim respondents found acceptable was utterly repugnant to Westerners.
So if we play the game of my former hallmate, whose views on Islam are right? One sees Islamic countries at peace with Israel, and it is our hope to visit one of them in the future. At the same time, Iran, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and all of the Palestinian factions (including the Palestinian Authority) wish to minimally kick the Jews out of our ancestral homeland and preferably give them the 10/7 treatment to make sure that they never come back. And when they do such things and when they support murder and torture, they generally do so in the name of Islam. I could never accept George Bush’s bleating about Islam being the “religion of peace” while Hezbollah honcho Hassan Nasrallah contemporaneously said that it was the “religion of war.” There are certainly places in the Koran and other Islamic texts that speak very negatively about Jews and command Muslims to attack them. While our Western-integrated Muslim in London might gloss over such verses and statements, the fellows in Beirut, Gaza, Tehran, and Sana’a seem to take the words at face value. And this is a serious problem as it means that the likelihood of long-term peaceful arrangements between Muslims and the West is nil. We were treated last October to Muslims in Western cities not only demanding that Israel vanish but also making it clear that they had plans to take over the countries that had graciously taken them in as refugees. As I asked awhile back, “What if they made a war and only one side showed up?” Attacks on soft Western targets including formerly peaceful kibbutzim and moshavim is the answer.
Millions upon millions of Muslims believe what is written in their religious literature. There will be no sugarcoating it like redefining “jihad” into some type of personal journey or the like. The West does not have to declare war on Islam but it should be aware that in taking in refugees en masse and in bilateral relations, there are many who wish to see the decadent West destroyed. They do not buy into the “Judeo-Christian” values of freedom and tolerance; they often use the same to enter and plan for their hosts’ demise. There is no value for Western leaders in being oblivious to the hatred of Westerners that at times is expressed in outright violence against unarmed civilians going about their lives. The war that Israel is fighting is one phase in the larger battle against Islamic violence. The US and Europe would be wise to encourage Israel on to victory against her many enemies. Should Israel lose or draw, those who hate the West will be emboldened to bring their 10/7 experience to additional Western targets.