Do You Worry About "Islamists" Taking Over the U.S.? Some Conservatives do.

Roger Simon writes for the conservative website Pajamas Media. He is convinced that America faces Islamist takeover. Such a takeover will result in women wearing burkas, gays being executed, and genocide against American Jews. You can read his article here. As Talking Points Memo has noted, this is apparently a very serious concern about American conservatives.

Now we have no doubt that there are Muslims who would like nothing better than to forcibly and violently convert the world to Islam. We have no doubt that such Muslims would gladly kill others in the pursuit of this goal. We also have no doubt that there are Christians who would gladly do the same. The point though isn't whether such people exist, the point is whether they have any ability to accomplish that goal.

Right now the United States has the most powerful military force in the world. We have a large Army, Navy, and Air Force. We have nuclear weapons. We are the only country in the world that has ever used nuclear weapons in a war, which means that we have demonstrated a willingness to use them. How in the world does such a country get taken over by Islamists? We just don't see it happening.

Driven by that curiosity, we left a comment on Simon's article last night asking him just how he sees Islamists accomplishing this goal. We checked this morning, (8/19/2007), and so far no answer. All this is not to say, however, that we doubt Simon's sincerity.

We think he is very sincere in his fear and we think that other conservatives are equally sincere. We just think that they are wrong. We also think that attributing power they don't have to people like bin Laden plays into their hands because it leads to overreactions. Such overreactions, like say invading a Arab country that doesn't pose a threat to our security, will in the long run harm American security. It will harm our security by radicalizing an increasing number of Muslims. Such radicalization will lead to more attacks on America and Americans. Will such attacks destroy our country? No. Will they lead to Americans dying needlessly in the sands of the Middle East and here at home? Definitely.