The Appeal of Radical Islam

Why ISIS Might Win, Even If It Loses


by S. Adam Seagrave

If Western culture continues to be defined by the pitiful desire to go on living in as much physical comfort as possible, we will continue to be victimized and oppressed by the much more powerful appeal of radical Islam to die for God and eternal happiness.

Based on the impassioned response of the French and the galvanizing effect of the recent attacks in Paris on the West more broadly, one might think that ISIS’s days are numbered. Surely they will be unable to withstand the massive multi-national military force that is progressively mobilizing against them.

Yet it would be a mistake to think that even the total defeat and eradication of the organization known as ISIS will result in long-term peace and an absence of radical Islamic terrorism in Europe and the United States. The organized existence of ISIS, and al Qaeda before it, is only one—easily replaceable—contributing reason for the perpetration of terrorist acts. There is a much more powerful and permanent reason behind radical Islamic terrorism: the motivation to die for an other-worldly cause inevitably overpowers the motivation to live for this world.

• The Appeal of Radical Islam ...
• The Decadence of Western Culture ...
• Resources for Revival ...

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S. Adam Seagrave is an assistant professor of political science at Northern Illinois University. He is the author of The Foundations of Natural Morality: On the Compatibility of Natural Rights and the Natural Law and editor of Liberty and Equality: The American Conversation.
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