Preface: The Problem

The primary problem, of course, is the problem of Islam and the global danger its revival in the late 20th century poses for all non-Muslims.

However, sometimes a problem can be primary, but not the most exigent: and that happens when there occurs an impediment to the analysis and actions that need to be taken to deal with that primary problem.

Political Correctness is that impediment. And Political Correctness is not merely one impediment among others: it is the most serious impediment of all, because it is sociopolitically dominant and mainstream throughout the West. Political Correctness is the reason why the West has been demonstrating, for years now, such an outrageous myopia about the deadly problem of Islam.

Most anti-Islam analysts do not seem to recognize the nature and scope of this impediment. Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch will at times seem to notice it when he makes the odd parenthetical remark about it, but his responses to me before he banned me from his site a couple of times show that, while he thinks he knows it is a problem, he ostensibly does not appreciate the full nature and dimensions of that problem.

Hugh Fitzgerald, Mr. Spencer’s right-hand man at Jihad Watch, tends to be worse—refusing with a fastidious disdain of the rarified air of the ivory tower to soil his analyses with such lowbrow descriptors as “Political Correctness” and, even worse, persisting in laboring under the impression that it is not at all a sociological phenomenon that hinders our cause, but only a matter of personal character flaws that can be remedied if only “we” would do something about it. Mr. Fitzgerald’s “we”, however, cannot do much to remedy this problem—not only because this “we” is surrounded on all sides by a dominant and mainstream culture of Political Correctness that would nip any such remedy in the bud; but also, and more poignantly, because oftentimes most members of this “we” are themselves diseased by Political Correctness in various ways that would preclude their heeding of Mr. Fitzgerald’s ethereal suggestions.

So, merely knowing something is a problem is not enough if you do not take the trouble to learn how much of a problem it is, and when you do not sufficiently explore in what ways it poses a problem.