For many apologists, though, it’s just easier to call the jihadists “crazy.” Here’s Vox’s Ezra Klein, long-time purveyor of progressive orthodoxy, opining on the Paris murders. He fingers “the madness of the perpetrators, who did something horrible and evil that almost no human beings anywhere ever do, and the condemnation doesn’t need to be any more complex than saying unprovoked mass slaughter is wrong.”
This repeats Jimmy Carter’s mistake about the Ayatollah Khomeini, whom he called a “crazy man.” But jihadists are not insane, and their violence cannot be dismissed so simply. They are proud Muslims, adherents of a 14-centuries-old faith that conquered its way to one of history’s largest empires, the warriors before whom a now dominant, arrogant West once trembled. Their faith preaches that Allah wills the whole world to be united under the rule of Islam and its illiberal, totalitarian law code. Those who resist and refuse to convert are defying Allah; they are the enemies of Islam, the denizens of the “House of War” who endanger the spiritual wellbeing of the faithful in the “House of Islam.” As such, the infidels are the legitimate objects of Muslim violence, conquest, enslavement, and dominance, an aggression recorded on every page of history. If you want contemporary evidence for the reality of jihad, look around the world today, where Muslim violence is endemic, and accompanied by theological arguments drawn straight from Islamic scripture, theology, and jurisprudence.
—Victor Davis Hanson,”Western Sleepwalkers and the Paris Massacre”
VDH is a gem.
Yeah, Allah wills alright. I had a co-worker back in the early 80’s who had spent some time in Iran in the 1970’s as a contractor under the Shah’s regime. He said that one of the most difficult concepts they had with the Iranian workers (muslims, of course) was “preventative maintenance.” This was because if something, like a helicopter or a truck, broke down it was because Allah willed it, not because of a lack of any proper maintenance procedures.
So not only does Allah “will the whole world to be united under the rule of Islam,” but he also apparently does not care very much about whether or not the jihadists are properly prepared to carry out the command to enable it.