Once upon a time, the Islamic world was a superpower and its jihad an irresistible force to be reckoned with. Over two centuries ago, however, a rising Europe—which had experienced more than one millennium of Muslim conquests and atrocities—eclipsed and defanged Islam. As Muhammad’s civilization retreated into obscurity, the post-Christian West slowly came into being. Islam did not change, but the West did: Muslims still venerate their heritage and religion—which commands jihad against infidels—whereas the West has learned to despise its heritage and religion, causing it to become an unwitting ally of the jihad.
Hence the current situation: Islamic jihad is back in full vigor, while the West facilitates it in varying degrees; hence the irony: “At a time when the military superiority of the West—meaning chiefly the USA—over the Muslim world has never been greater,” observes historian Alan G. Jamieson, “Western countries feel insecure ind the face of the activities of Islamic terrorists. . . . In all the long centuries of Christian-Muslim conflict, never has the military imbalance between the two sides been greater, yet the dominant West can apparently derive no comfort from that fact.”
In short, if Islam is terrorizing the West today, that is not because it can, but because the West allows it to. For no matter how diminished, a still swinging Scimitar will always overcome a strong but sheathed Sword.
Raymond Ibrahim, Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War Between Islam and the West, pg. 296-297
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