There’s an interesting editorial in the Middle East Times written by Youssef M. Ibrahim concerning how radical Muslims have picked the wrong people to mess with (via Austin Bay). The premise is good however I’m not exactly sure the West is where Ibrahim says it is . . . yet.

Do the cowardly jihadis who recruit suicide bombers really think that they will force the US Army and British troops out of Iraq by killing hundreds of innocent Iraqis? US troops now have bases and operate in Iraq but also from Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman.

The only accomplishment of jihadis is that now they have aroused the great “Western Tiger”. There was a time when the United States and Europe welcomed Arab and Muslim immigrants, visitors and students, with open arms. London even allowed all dissidents escaping their countries to preach against those countries under the guise of political refugees.

Well, that is all over now. Time has become for the big Western vengeance.

Visas for Arab and Muslim young men will be impossible to get for the United States and Western Europe. Those working there will be expelled if they are illegal, and harassed even if their papers are in order.

Airlines will have to right to refuse boarding to passengers if their names even resemble names on a prohibited list on all flights heading to Europe and the United States.

What is more important to remember is this: When the West did unite after World War II to beat communism, the long Cold War began without pity. They took no prisoners. They all stood together, from the United States to Norway, from Britain to Spain, from Belgium to Switzerland. And they did bring down the biggest empire. Communism collapsed.

I fear those naïve Muslims who think that they are beating the West have now achieved their worst crime of all. The West is now going to war against not only Muslims, but also, sadly, Islam as a religion.

Ibrahim hits the nail on the head right at the start of this excerpt because while the war in Iraq may not be popular, depending on which poll you choose to believe and how the questions are worded of course, the jihadis really stand no chance in forcing the Coalition to leave. Some Coalition nations are leaving however most of those withdrawals were planned long ago and the soldiers are replaced with more Coalition soldiers and/or Iraqi National Guard. The ING will be responsible for much of Iraq’s security soon and has already stepped up to the plate which leaves the Jihadis fighting Muslims, which based upon radical Islamic terror groups targeting innocent Muslims this may have been their intended target all along.

I’m not certain this is the time where the West has come together. On some aspects, of which Ibrahim listed, the West has, but on other aspect the West has not. Without question it is more difficult for Arabs to receive visas into the United States (I presume England shortly) which is quite a change from years past. Many Arabs, including many high-ranking jihadis, attended American universities, however these numbers are sure to dwindle because of the threat of radical Islam.

Much like World War II, there are some similarities. Increased intelligence sharing among nations is prevalent and many nations are confronting radical Islam. Much like WW II, Spain remains placid on the ground, but the nation has not aided the enemy this time around. The differences of course remain that there are many nations confronting the same common enemy. Nations which were WW II enemies or nuetral have joined forces in this front. It is not the West unless this word has new meaning to include nations such as Russia, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Fiji, etc.

The old alliances of WW II have come back around with several new additions, however the jihadis are far from the Nazis or the Japanese under empirical rule. They do not fight under a flag other than the flag of Islam which leaves nations combatting them without a good clue as to where they might sleep in their midst.

Ibrahim is correct in that this war against radical Islam may very well turn into a war against Islam, however if Islamic leaders can rise and give a face to modern Islam which is against the radicalization of Islam and against the radical Islamic ideology, it will not have to be this way. In fact I suspect this is what most Western nations would prefer. It is not there yet, but it may be soon if a strong Islamic leader does not rise up.

Many in nations targeted by radical Islam, which is almost every nation sans Iran at the present moment, are getting tired of having to wait days for local Muslim groups to rise up and issue a fatwa against radical Islam following a terrorist attack. Furthermore these fatwas often carry little to no weight as the disgust by the average citizen of these countries continues to grow.

As I’ve written before, we are in a religious war. It is not a war against Islam or any other religion, but it is a religious war nonetheless when the enemy of freedom carries nothing else than a religious doctrine and suicide bomb belt. We are a patient people, but just like World War II, we’ve learned our lesson from being too paitent.