"Muslims Who Don't Hate America Sin"

There's nothing new in Scott Atran's interview of Abu Bakar Bashir, the spiritual leader of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), perpetrators of the Bali bombings and numerous other attrocities in the name of jihad and Allah, but that hardly means it's not worth reading.

Every peacenik should read Bashir's emphatic statements on the inevitability of battle.

SA: What can the West, especially the US, do to make the world more peaceful?

ABB: They have to stop fighting Islam. That's impossible because it is sunnatullah [destiny, a law of nature], as Allah has said in the Koran. If they want to have peace, they have to accept to be governed by Islam.

SA: What if they persist?

ABB: We'll keep fighting them and they'll lose. The batil [falsehood] will lose sooner or later. I sent a letter to Bush. I said that you'll lose and there is no point for you [to fight us]. This [concept] is found in the Koran.

Later in the very brief interview, Bashir, who sees himself as an ally of bin Laden almost holds out an olive branch, with a "We'll see ... if they leave Islam alone" statement, but quickly recants it:

Islam can't be ruled by others. Allah's law must stand above human law. There is no [example] of Islam and infidels, the right and the wrong, living together in peace.

I'm increasingly convinced that the only way we can leave Islam alone is to leave the planet, or ask them to. Even within more moderate Islamic countries, the radicals are a powerful force, angry, threatening, anxious to stop all this sinful moderation and get on with the jihad.

How can we leave them alone if their despots shield themselves in Islam to attack neighbors and defy international law? How can we leave them alone if they attack us on our shores? How can Playground Earth allow the bully to continue playing his "I can exist but you can't" game?

Bashir, bin Laden, Ahmadinejad leave no room for coexistence. Kumbayah that, Cindy Sheehan, Tim Robbins and the Democrat leadership!