The Strata-Sphere » Blog Archive » Poll Shows Muslims Rejecting Suicide Bombings, Therefore al-Qaeda’s Strategy

The Strata-Sphere » Blog Archive » Poll Shows Muslims Rejecting Suicide Bombings, Therefore al-Qaeda’s Strategy:

"Most notably, the survey finds large and growing number of Muslims in the
Middle East and elsewhere rejecting Islamic extremism. Ten mainly Muslim
countries were surveyed along with the Palestinian territories, as well as five
African nations with large Muslim populations."

I think the hard thing that we are going to face is how do we prevent ourselves from becoming the hatred, or remaining the hatred of the Muslim world as terror becomes a less powerful tool. It should be pointed out that a decline in the opinion of Al Qaeda does not mean a rise in the opinion of America. Communities and people can hate both at the same time, and they may feel for the same reasons.

If we are going to win this war on terror in the long run, we need not only kill their leaders, we need to become leaders. We are not going to become global leaders by violating the very ideas that we proclaim to be supporting. Those ideas are the ideas of personal freedom, the dignity of the individual and the rule of law. Bush has done a poor job upholding these ideas in America and around the world. I have long felt that if we defeat terror by laying these ideas aside, we will become defeated as well.

It was our ideas that made America a powerful leader in the world, when we lose our ideas, we will lose that power to lead.