This is the last in a series of four articles from the Washington Examiner which they have posted to help all of us understand who we are fighting in the war on terror.  It is written by Andrew G. Bostom and is found at the Washington Examiner today.

The opening paragraph of the article states:

“Turkey’s current Prime Minister Erdogan, commenting in August, 2007 on the term “moderate Islam,” frequently used in the West to describe his ruling political party, the AKP, stated, “These descriptions are very ugly, it is offensive and an insult to our religion. There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam and that’s it.””

So what are we doing when we attempt to make friends with ‘moderate’ Muslims? 

The Organization of the Islamic Conference (a 57 nation group that includes all Muslim nations and makes up the largest voting bloc in the UN) ratified the 1990 Cairo Declaration, or “Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Islam.”  This universal declaration includes such statements as:

“Articles 19 and 22 reiterate Shari’a principles, stated throughout the document, which clearly apply to the “punishment”–death–for so-called “apostates” from Islam.”

“The Cairo Declaration–entirely consistent with Islamic Law–also introduces unacceptable discrimination against non-Muslims and women, while sanctioning the legitimacy of dehumanizing, Shari’a-compliant punishments such as flogging, amputation, and stoning.”

The article points out that a large percentage of Muslims in the world believe in the principles of Sharia law and seek the establishment of a worldwide Caliphate run on the principles of Sharia law.

This is the enemy we face.  There is no room for negotiation.  Our leaders need to understand that the jihadists are not fighting us because of what we have done or are doing–they are fighting us because of who we are and the freedoms we enjoy.  Closing Guantanamo or releasing a few token terrorists will not end this war.  The only way the war on terror ends is when a point is reached where the terrorist training camps are closed, the terrorist leaders are dead, and the terrorists-in-training decide they don’t want to die also.