“Understanding what motivates the enemy is essential to defeating it. The commander in chief took a major step in that direction with last week’s speech tying terrorism to ‘Islamic radicalism’…. With Thursday’s speech, he also abandoned his mantra that Islam is a ‘religion of peace’…. The president could have gone even further to explain what motivates the terrorists. He left the impression they are all heretics distorting the idea of jihad and defiling their scripture…. The unpleasant truth is, Muslim terrorists are getting all these terrible ideas – from violent jihad to self-immolation to even the beheadings we’ve seen in Pakistan and Iraq – straight out of the text of their holy book.”

Investor’s Business Daily, 7 October 2005

I assumed that the anonymous author was in fact Robert Spencer, but apparently not. See Jihad Watch, 8 October 2005

On second thoughts, perhaps it was Brett Lock.

Robert Spencer is less than enthusiastic about the possibility of Turkey’s entry into the EU: “there is still some hope that Turkey will be rejected, and Europe saved. But that hope is slim”. He adds: “In a speech last month, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Turkish membership would ‘demonstrate that Western and Islamic cultures can thrive together as partners in the modern world’. Partners? Will the Islamic culture allow for that? What evidence does Jack Straw have that Islam has set aside or will set aside its supremacist imperative? None whatsoever, of course.”

Dhimmi Watch, 4 October 2005

“On Oct. 3, representatives of the European Union and the Turkish government of Islamist Recep Erdogan will meet to determine if Muslim Turkey will be allowed to seek full membership in the EU. It will be best for Turkey, to say nothing of Europe and the West more generally, if the EU answer under present circumstances is: ‘Thanks, but no thanks.’ The reason Europe should politely, but firmly, reject Turkey’s bid should be clear: Prime Minister Erdogan is systematically turning his country from a Muslim secular democracy into an Islamofascist state governed by an ideology anathema to European values and freedoms.”

Frank J. Gaffney in the Washington Times, 27 September 2005

“Thousands of anti-war protesters (and pro-war counter protesters) marched in Washington, D.C., this past weekend, and emotions ran high. They filled the air with angry questions about everything from how soon we’ll withdraw from Iraq to how many more ‘children’ we’re ‘willing to sacrifice’, as Cindy Sheehan asked the crowd. Good luck finding anyone ready to face the real choice before America and Europe: Namely, will the West decisively confront the threat posed by radical Islam? Or will it ride its fabled ‘tolerance’ into oblivion?”

Rebecca Hagelin at World Net Daily, 27 September 2005