The terrorists' motivation: Islam
Thursday, September 7, 2006 "The terrorists are not 'un-Islamic' bandits who have 'hijacked a great religion'; they are consistent and serious followers of their religion.... In the last year, there has been more and more of a call for a 'War of Ideas' – an intellectual campaign to win the 'hearts and minds' of the Arab world that will discourage and discredit Islamic terrorism. Unfortunately, the centerpiece of this campaign so far has been to appeal to Muslims with claims that Islam is perfectly consistent with Western ideals, and inconsistent with terrorism. America has, with little success, groveled to so-called moderate Muslim leaders to strongly repudiate terrorism. (Those leaders have focused little energy on damning Islamic fanaticism, and much on the alleged sins of the U.S. government.) Such a campaign cannot work, since insofar as these 'moderates' accept Islam, they cannot convincingly oppose violence in its name."