- April 19, 2024
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Islamic states and jihadists who attack and murder Westerners and other disbelievers are motivated to do so by their religion, Islam. Everyone paying attention knows this (including those pretending not to).
From the 1983 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut, to the 1989 fatwa on British author Salman Rushdie, to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City, to the 1996 bombing of the Khobr Towers in Saudi Arabia, to the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, to the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, to the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, to the 2004 bombings of commuter trains in Madrid, to the 2004 murder of Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam, to the 2005 bombings in the London Underground, to the 2009 massacre at Fort Hood, to the 2012 murders at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, to the 2013 bombings at the Boston Marathon, to the 2013 butchering of a British soldier in London, to the 2014 beheading of a woman in Oklahoma, to the 2015 massacre of cartoonists and journalists at the Charlie Hebdo in Paris — all of these and countless additional atrocities have been committed by Muslims who accept the tenets of Islam as true and take the religion seriously.
“Fight and kill the disbelievers wherever you find them,” the Koran orders (9:5). “When you meet the unbelievers in fight, smite at their necks (47:4).” “Fight them until all opposition ends and all submit to Allah (8:39).” “Those who annoy Allah and His Messenger … whenever they are found, they shall be seized and slain (33:57-61).” “To him who fighteth in the cause of Allah — whether he is slain or gets victory — soon shall We give him a reward of great value (4:74).”
What of the “unbelievers,” the “transgressors,” the “disobedient”? What will be their divine fate? “They will enter the Fire of Hell,” where “it will be said to them: ‘This is the reality which you rejected as false!’ (83:12-17)”
And on and on.
Islamic scripture is saturated with such commandments and promises. Consequently and unsurprisingly, Islamic states, Muslim groups and individual Muslims who take their religion seriously are committed to converting or killing unbelievers until all submit to Allah.
That is the widely known (yet oft-evaded) problem. What is the solution?
At the political level, the solution is for Western nations, especially the United States, to name the enemy — Islamic regimes that sponsor terrorism, especially those in Iran and Saudi Arabia, and the jihadist groups they support, such as Al Qaeda and Islamic State; eliminate them using the full capabilities of our militaries, including nuclear weapons if necessary; announce to the world that any and all regimes, groups, and individuals who continue sponsoring or engaging in jihad will likewise be eliminated; and follow through on that promise.
But, as everyone paying attention also knows, neither the U.S. government nor any Western governments will eliminate those regimes and groups anytime soon. So we who care about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness must do more than demand that our governments do what they should do. We must also engage in activism at deeper philosophic levels, specifically at the levels of morality and epistemology (the branch of philosophy concerned with nature and means of knowledge).
At the moral level, we must reject and condemn the morality that forbids Western nations from taking the correct political action: the morality of altruism, the notion that self-sacrfice is moral, that we should love our enemies, turn the other cheek and generally sacrifice ourselves and our loved ones for the “sake” of others, including savages.
On the positive side, we must embrace and advocate the morality that mandates correct political action: the morality of rational egoism, the truth that self-interest is moral, that we should pursue and not sacrifice our life-serving values, and that, when attacked, we should defend ourselves by any means necessary.”
— Craig Biddle
The Objectivist Standard
Spring 2015
