It would have been impossible to imagine in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks that they would actually stir sympathy for Islam – even radical Islam.
Yet there is no question, eight years later, that is exactly what happened.
Though accurate statistics are elusive, Islam is growing in America – both through immigration and conversion.
Islam has more effective lobbying groups in America than ever before.
There are efforts to be more “inclusive” of Islam in government, schools, academia and business.
There is more “sensitivity” to Islam in entertainment.
And there is an almost suicidal eagerness to assume the best about Islam, its adherents and its intentions.
Try to imagine what might have happened if (and, admittedly, this is very difficult to imagine) a group of Orthodox Jews crashed two planes into the World Trade Center, another into the Pentagon and a fourth into a field in Pennsylvania, killing about 3,000 Americans.
Would you expect such a development to make Americans more sympathetic toward Orthodox Jews? Would you expect it to generate a boon to conversions? Would you expect to see more Orthodox Jewish lobby groups form and see more of their spokespeople on TV? Would you expect to see the government and cultural institutions reaching out to be more inclusive of Orthodox Jewish viewpoints? Would you expect to see so-called “civil rights” groups defending Orthodox Jews spring up and attract more media attention than they ever received before?
Somehow, that’s not the reaction I would expect toward Orthodox Jews in the unlikely and improbably scenario I have hypothesized.
Yet, that is what happened with Islam after 9/11. Even radical Islamic clerics and groups and mosques have benefited directly by this trend after the worst attack on American soil.
Why?
Is it a kind of Stockholm Syndrome in which Americans come to sympathize with their attackers?
Or did it occur because there has been an orchestrated plot to make it happen to further what author Robert Spencer calls the “Stealth Jihad”?
I’ve been studying radical Islam since 1979. I’ve been writing about it since the early 1980s. I’m considered an authoritative expert on the subject by many. I’ve lectured all over the world on the topic in the last 10 years.
Yet, I have to tell you, Spencer’s new book has been an eye-opener even for me.
When I first saw the title, “Stealth Jihad: How Radical Islam Is Subverting America Without Guns or Bombs,” I thought: “I’m not sure people are going to be as concerned by the stealth jihadists as they are about those with the guns and bombs.”
But after reading this amazing book, I realize the bigger threat to America comes from the subtle, sophisticated stealth jihadists who are, in fact, winning over the hearts and minds of Americans at a most unlikely time in history – when jihadists have openly declared war on America and shown they mean it.
Spencer reveals the interlocking connections of the most important stealth jihadist groups and individuals actively subverting our country and Western Civilization. He shows how they are winning the day – despite a record of arrests, indictments, trials and convictions for their own covert support of violent jihadists.
Worse yet, he exposes the foreign money trail that supports these groups and individuals – a money trail that starts right back in countries supporting the violent jihadists in Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan and the Palestinian Authority.
It is the power and presence of these stealth jihadists that have provided cover to those clerics and mosques inside America that have become a breeding and training ground for violent jihadists now being exported from America to places like Somalia.
I urge you to read Robert Spencer’s new book.
I urge you to embrace its truths.
I urge you to do this today as a vital matter of national security.
