Hysteria over Shahid Alam

From the Dissident Voice comes an essay by an Islamist apologist claiming certain parallels between al Qaeda’s war against the West and the American Revolutionary War. Several popular blogs -- LGF, Jihad Watch, and The Jawa Report -- have taken Professor Shahid Alam to task for daring to make such a comparison. Each post fails to recognize that Alam qualifies some of his comparisons, but some the comments at these three posts show a hysteria that is unhealthy.

The fact of the matter is that Alam is largely correct. Al Qaeda is engaged in a revolution against us. How can one see it any differently? His concept of 9/11 being an Islamist “shot heard round the world” seems dead on, as does his rhetoric describing calls for global Muslim mobilization.

What Americans need to realize is that there really is no such thing as terrorism; there are revolutions you support (freedom fighters) and those that you don’t (terrorists). But to label a person or a group “terrorist” is to say nothing more than that you disagree with their claims and their cause. For Alam to eschew the terrorist label when dealing with al Qaeda is quite accurate in actually quite helpful.

This need not be a seditious statement. In fact, my insistence that al Qaeda is engaged in a revolution against our country and our way of life was the reason I voted for George Bush and the reason I think we’re being too soft in Iraq. If it is a war then the enemy needs to be killed or forced to surrender unconditionally. If it is not a war, then we should have elected John Kerry. Had presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush 41, and Clinton recognized the Islamist revolt that began in 1979 we might not be in the situation we’re in today.

The real problem, and the true source of all this anger against Professor Alam, is that he seems to be rooting against America and for the enemy. This is Alam’s treason, not his calling the jihadists revolutionaries.


(cross-posted at Outside the Beltway)