Medved: Declaration Against Islam Would Be Counterproductive

Michael Medved asks in his article Is Islam Itself the Enemy?, "Is America’s 'war on terror' in reality a war on Islam itself?".

He seems to analyze the impact of making such a declaration but not look at the veracity of the statement itself. As a quick analysis of the impact of announcing a war with Islam, he has a very good analysis.

Nevertheless, any public proclamation of overall enmity toward Islam would harm America’s cause in the world at large and undermine our security at home. This approach damages our interest in five ways--

1) It confirms the anti-American propaganda of terrorist leaders.
Osama bin Laden, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and their associates have argued for years that the United States, "the Great Satan," is the leader of a global conspiracy to destroy Islam and oppress Muslims...

2) It alienates our allies.
Jordan, Turkey, Egypt, Pakistan, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and other Muslim nations may be far from perfect as allies, but they would each be profoundly dangerous as adversaries...

3) It puts the societies of Western Europe at profound risk.
With growing and powerful Muslim populations in France, the United Kingdom, Germany and most other European powers, an American declaration of hostility to Islam would force those societies into an impossible choice: either disassociate yourself completely from your necessary American ally, or prepare to suppress the well-established Islamic communities in your midst...

4) It destroys our tradition of religious pluralism. If we proclaim Islam (or any other religion) as an "enemy of the state," then we’ve clearly abandoned our cherished First Amendment tradition of neutrality among religious faiths...

5) It pushes us toward a never-ending war with no exit strategy.
Even those of us who have always supported the Iraq and Afghanistan wars wish that the government had learned one of the key lessons of Vietnam which once comprised a key element of the "Powell Doctrine": never go to war without a clear, practical plan for victory and a reliable exit strategy. If we define Islam as our enemy, then what, exactly, is our feasible strategy for wiping out a resilient religious faith that’s proven disturbingly durable for more than 1,400 years?

As can be read in his insightful article, he never addresses whether Islam itself is the source of the problem, whether Jihad is so deeply rooted in Islam it can never be removed. He solely addresses the perception issue.

I will need to read more...

I wonder if we should have refrained from saying anything about the philosophy of Communism for the same reason?