25 Years After 9/11 The Americans and British are still wrestling with the big challenge we face and a crucial question:

Is the big challenge Islam?—or Islamism?

The Economist magazine recently published a notable cover story.

Where they argued —and I quote: “Islam poses no serious danger. But Islamism and the fear of Islam do.”

Then they argue Islam is not a threat, but Islamism is. They define it as a fringe ideology in Islam, the belief that government and society should be guided by Islamic principles.

The problem for that theory is that central to Islam not just Islamism, but Islam, is the combination of Islam as a religion and a government. It’s not a peripheral idea to Islam. It’s not a misreading. It’s in the Quran.

When you look at Islam, you are looking at a civilizational project. You are looking at a civilizational challenge.

And quite honestly we had better recognize it as such.