Commentary on Andrew McCarthy's Analysis of the Islamist Enemy

Andrew McCarthy has written an outstanding analysis in National Review on defining the Islamist enemy in the War on Terrorism: http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/331787/real-foreign-policy-failure-andrew-c-mccarthy.  I cited McCarthy, the federal prosecutor of the blind sheik behind the first World Trade Center attack and other plots in my post from November of 2010, The Anti-Anti Terrorist Left, http://williamcinfici.blogspot.com/2010/11/anti-anti-terrorist-left.html.

McCarthy analyzes the religious motivations of the enemy and criticizes the use of such terms as “extremist” or “radicals” to describe them.  He identifies the Islamist enemy specifically as those who support sharia (Islamic law), regardless of whether they are themselves militant.  I have long made a distinction between non-militant Muslims and militant Muslims (Islamists engaged in Islamic holy war to spread Islam by conquest), regardless of whether the latter intended to impose sharia, but his identification of our particular enemy in the War on Terrorism as all those who support sharia also makes sense, as he observes such Muslims are the allies of the militants if they approve of violent acts in favor of imposing sharia.  McCarthy notes the incompatibility with liberty of sharia.

I would like to develop briefly a few of McCarthy’s points.  He is right that it is not useful to label the enemy as “extremist.”  This political label is empty, as it simply identifies one as having a polar opposite viewpoint from someone with the completely contrary viewpoint who thus necessarily is also an extremist.  Indeed, calling someone a “Muslim extremist” implies that he is extremely Muslim, meaning that he is a consistent, faithful Muslim, which does not seem to be what is intended by this label.  McCarthy is also correct that it is not accurate to describe the enemy as “radicals.”  A radical, from the Latin for root, is one who believes in tearing something up at its roots, whereas the Islamists believe that they are getting back to the roots of Islam.

Moreover, these expressions, such as also referring the enemy as “fanatics,” presuppose the requirement of non-Muslims to judge what is true Islam and what is not.  Even within Islam, although there are respected scholars, there is no longer any human authority (a caliph) to make such a judgment, let alone among non-Muslims, especially certain Western policymakers who insist they know what is true Islam and what is not.  Therefore, as I have posted repeatedly, it is necessary for us to recognize the express religious motivation of militant, including terrorist, Islamists, regardless of our opinion about whether or not it represents the true religion of Islam.