Bin Laden Dead – Islamist War Against Civilization Alive

[Ed Hudgins]

Bin Laden Dead – Islamist War Against Civilization Alive

The Atlas Society congratulates the American military and intelligence forces and this administration for rendering justice on Islamist terrorist Osama bin Laden!

There is no room here for moral relativism. Bin Laden and al Qaeda stood for everything antithetical to human beings: In 1996 bin Laden made this clear when he said of his terrorists, "These youth love death as you love life." All civilized humans should be relieved that the leader of these death-worshippers is dead.

Yet members of a Pakistani religious party are honoring bin Laden. The Hamas thugs who rule Gaza and who have vowed to destroy Israel "condemn the assassination and the killing of an Arab holy warrior" and call for continuing murders of the innocent. Arabs in Jerusalem rioted in anger over bin Laden's killing. And most bizarrely, it is reported that American military personnel, probably at the orders of the White House, gave bin Laden a religious funeral in accordance with Muslim practices for his burial at sea. (The Nazi war criminals executed at Nuremburg were cremated and their ashes scattered in an unknown location.)

The killing of bin Laden focuses our attention again on the issues that underlie the Islamist assault on civilization.

We offer the following from our archives from Atlas Society scholars to bring moral clarity to these issues.

And again, offer our heartfelt and mindful thanks to all who put their lives on the line to preserve our freedom!

"The Assault on Civilization" (September 13, 2001)

By David Kelley

In this brief essay, published two days after 9/11, David Kelley identifies the nihilism of the attack.

"9/11 and the War Against Modernity" (May, 2002)

By David Kelley

After the 9/11 attacks, David Kelley placed the war with Islamists in the broader context of the war against modernity. The ideas behind that war in fact originate in the West!

"The Means and Ends of Islamists" (July/August, 2005)

By Edward Hudgins

Many claim that the Islamist attacks on America and the West are simply blow-back over American foreign policy. But Hudgins shows that the virulent Islamist ideology is the principal motivating factor.

"The Jihad Against Free Speech" (Winter, 2005)

By Edward Hudgins

When a Dutch newspapers published cartoons of Mohammad, Muslims protested, rioted, and murdered worldwide; and morally confused individuals in the West actually sided with those ranting irrationalists. Hudgins sorts out the free speech issues at stake in the West.

"Cartoon Journalists" (Winter, 2005)

By Robert Bidinotto

Bidinotto condemns the journalists who gave in to Islamist intimidation and censored themselves concerning the Mohammad cartoon controversy.

"Israel vs. Palestinian Moral Smuggling" (June 3, 2010)

By Edward Hudgins

A year ago the appeasers of Islamists in the West condemned Israel for attempting to stop the smuggling of weapons to the Hamas Islamists who rule Gaza. It was their moral double standard on display.

"Does Islam Need a Reformation?" (Spring, 2011)

By David Kelley

Many claim that Islam needs a Reformation, as happened with Christianity in the West. Kelley points out that the Reformation in the West was a turning away from a philosophy of reason. An Enlightenment is what's really needed.