What Should Republicans Do Now? From Robert Spencer: 'Take on the Islamic Jihad Threat'

If Republicans want to cement their electoral base and close the widening gap between the agenda of the political elites and the concerns of ordinary citizens, they would do well to face the jihad threat more comprehensively and realistically than Barack Obama has ever even attempted to do.

Above all, they would need to address the increasing national disquiet about the sharp rise in jihad terror attacks in the U.S. since Obama has become president. The reasons for that increase are manifold, yet Obama and Congress have reacted to it with a mixture of indifference and denial. The pervasive unreality about the nature and magnitude of the jihad threat is reaching a critical point, and Americans are growing increasingly impatient with it. When Juan Williams made the entirely understandable (in light of 9/11 and other jihad attacks and attempted attacks involving airplanes) observation that the sight of Muslims on airplanes made him nervous and NPR immediately fi red him, it turned into a public relations disaster for the network, which was inundated with mail from Americans fed up with its politically-correct cowardice.

Republicans must confront the entrenched view in the State Department, the Pentagon, and the Department of Homeland Security—as well as the mainstream media—that Islamic jihad attacks have nothing to do with Islam and that to investigate honestly the motives and goals of jihad terrorists constitutes “bigotry.” The fact that Islamic jihadists explain and justify their actions—and fi nd recruits among peaceful Muslims—by referring copiously to Islamic texts and teachings is one of the foremost truths that cannot be stated in the contemporary political climate. The national fury at Williams’ fi ring by NPR is a strong indicator that Americans have had enough of this denial and are looking for leaders courageous enough to enunciate a more realistic strategy.

Yet it may be even more urgent for Republicans to address the increasing assertiveness and demands of Islamic supremacist groups nationwide—the primary example of which is the callous disregard on the part of the New York political establishment, the mainstream media and the Muslim organizers of the Ground Zero mosque initiative for the feelings of the 70 percent of Americans who oppose that mosque.

More than ever, Islamic groups are asserting the idea that where Islamic law and American law confl ict, it is American law that must give way, and they’re pressing for special concessions to Islamic practices in workplaces and schools. ...

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