Can a civilization cowed by campus millennials summon the resolve to defeat Islamic terrorists?

Enemies Foreign and Domestic
by Matthew Hennessey

When terrorists attack innocents, when barbarians slaughter concertgoers, when zealots target outdoor cafes, when fundamentalists murder “infidels” on the streets of Paris, New York, Madrid, and Mumbai—when these things happen, we are reminded of just what a unique civilization we have inherited in the West and just how fragile that inheritance is. We are reminded, too, that among us are those who would be content to toss it all away.

In the darker corners of the Internet and the leftward precincts of academia, the Enlightenment values of liberty, reason, and universal human rights—not to mention the world-changing political revolutions they inspired in Europe and the Americas—amount to little more than a cheap intellectual justification for the historical forces of imperialism, slaughter, and subjugation. Usually, it’s easy to ignore those who respond to events such as the attacks in Paris with soliloquies to the effect of: “Well, you know who the real terrorists are, don’t you?” Or, “You can’t expect an entire civilization to take centuries of insults lying down.” Or, “Do you know what’s happening in Palestine right now, yesterday, and every day?”

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More by Matthew Hennessey:

• Liberals v. Maoists
• The Smell of Disorder
• Rebranding Socialism