Islam is a powerful and intense religion that has little tolerance for other beliefs. It seeks to dominate or eliminate all other religions, including the “peoples of the book;” the Christians and Jews.

Islam is a highly visible faith. It often has a required dress code, and public prayers are said five times a day while facing toward Mecca. The communal nature of Muslim worship makes it easy for spiritual monitors to observe behavior and maintain religious purity. As a consequence, Islam tends to have highly motivated adherents.

There are millions of Muslims, most of whom wish us no harm, and are not our enemies. Unfortunately, among the millions of peaceful Muslims, there are groups of completely immoral brutes bent on destroying anything and anyone that their warped religious zeal finds objectionable. Their brutality is guided solely by their corrupted and immoral religious code; and they are as vicious to their fellow Muslims as to unbelievers.

We are under assault from this barbarian Islamist sect. This assault is not intended to defeat us militarily, but to destroy the moral fabric that holds our society together. This is a new kind of war; relying more on long-term moral resolve than on weapons and bravery. The open question is: does our society have the moral strength to fend off the attack?

Religious fervor in western culture is no match for Muslim intensity.

In much of Western Europe, churches and the few surviving synagogues are largely empty. Western society has evolved into a more “civilized,”—more tolerant—culture with a wide variety of beliefs. While we Americans have not abandoned our places of worship, the strength of our moral beliefs has been diluted by our desire to “fit into” the ecumenical community of faiths. Openness may help a civil society to avoid strife, but it is not an asset when facing aggression.

Our overly tolerant moral standards are being severely tested by barbarian determination to destroy our civilization. While forgiveness and “turning the other cheek” might be laudable in civilized society, the barbarians will simply use the other cheek as an additional target. We need not sacrifice our freedom to worship— or not to worship— in the face of assault, but we must have a moral foundation that provides us the courage to repel conquest by alien barbarity.

This is not a plea for supporting one faith, nor antipathy toward any other faith. Americans come in many faiths, and we will prosper, or collapse, together. But people of all faiths, — and including those of no particular faith— need to actively resist the encroachment of the debased barbarian fanatics.

Much of “elite” America has followed “sophisticated” Western Europe in abandoning religion to become “secularized.” Secular societies do not subscribe to any enduring, common moral code, and must make individual, ad hoc, moral decisions. With no universal set of agreed values, secular societies are unable to draw a mutually accepted “line in the sand” to defend civilization.

Secularists’ ethos of tolerance and diversity is admirable in civil society; but the barbarians see it as a fatal flaw to be used against us. Secular doctrine of “Live and let live” provides no meaningful guidance when the barbarians’ offer is only, “live as I say—or die!” America suffers from a denial of reality that saps our moral resilience. Our political class lacks the wisdom (or courage) to speak factually. For fear of offending Muslim countries, our government refuses to describe Islamic barbarism as it is.

This is insane: Muslim leaders are fully aware of the true situation and have no cause to be offended. The barbarians welcome our political cowardice as a sign of a feeble resolve to resist their assault. Somehow, we must retain our personal and religious freedoms, while mustering the national moral consensus to defend ourselves from the barbarian attack.

Playing defense without retribution for attacks is worse than leading from behind