Muslim Troubles

Sorry for the "Search Inside" with the artwork -- Amazon had the best cover art for Bill Bennett's new book, but it comes with a price.

Anyway, Bennett gave an interview to Kathern Jean Lopez on NRO Online some time back which I only read today in the June issue of The Proposition, the Claremont Institute's thoroughly enjoyable newsletter.

Based on this quote alone, I'm buying a copy of the book. Given the situation we're in today, it is very instructional -- and that's what we look to the former Secretary of Education for, right?

Lopez: What's the most politically incorrect fact you present, of the sort no one else would dare?

Bennett: Muslim troubles. From the beginning. And by the beginning, I mean Christopher Columbus. Radical Islam or Militant Islam was trouble for us from before day one. The European empires go west because they don't watnt to deal with these guys in the east.

Jefferson's war against the Barbary pirates was taken up after more than one million Europeans had been made slaves by Muslim traders. John Adams was opposed to the war, by the way, saying prophetically that if we fought these militant Muslims, we'd be fighting them forever.

I'm a big Adams fan, but I've got to say he got it wrong on Muslims. He missed the point that even if we don't fight the militant Muslims, we'll be fighting them forever.

Related Tags: Muslims, Terrorism, Islamists, Bill Bennett