As I noted in an earlier post, Bill O’Reilly’s verbal assault on Pamela Geller’s Mohammed cartoon contest as “stupid” is based on the faulty premise that if we but abide by Sharia’s anti-blasphemy laws (i.e., we don’t insult Muslims by drawing Mohammed), “good” Muslims and “moderate” Muslim nations will join our fight against the bad Muslims of AQ and IS. The flip side of this argument is the explicit one O’Reilly used to call the cartoon contest stupid: by insulting Muslims by violating their religious precepts by drawing Mohammed, we are driving the “good” Muslims and “moderate” Muslim nations away from the existential fight against radical Islamic terrorists—that is, our “allies” like Turkey and Saudi Arabia will abandon us if we don’t mind our Sharia Ps and Qs.
Well, folks, as we pointed out, that argument lacks both empirical and logical integrity. Read this latest article about Turkey and Saudi Arabia joining with the “radical Islamic terrorists” to fight Assad. And why not? Once Assad is defeated, that will weaken if not destroy the Shia/Iranian hold over Syria and allow a Sunni-centered, Islamist/Sharia regime to take control. Precisely the kind of new regime that will use its terrirtory to forge new jihadists in the war against the West. Syria and Turkey won’t care—they are Sunni Islamists—maybe not as openly violent as AQ or IS, but only by degrees or tactics not by the core doctrine of Sharia.