Bin Laden, The Left and Me

Dinesh D'Souza wrote in WaPo As a conservative author, I'm used to a little controversy. Even so, the reaction to my new book, "The Enemy at Home," has felt, well, a little hysterical.... Why the onslaught? Just this: In my book, published this month, I argue that the American left bears a measure of responsibility for the volcano of anger from the Muslim world that produced the 9/11 attacks. President Jimmy Carter's withdrawal of support for the shah of Iran, for example, helped Ayatollah Khomeini's regime come to power in Iran, thus giving radical Islamists control of a major state; and President Bill Clinton's failure to respond to Islamic attacks confirmed bin Laden's perceptions of U.S. weakness and emboldened him to strike on 9/11. I also argue that the policies that U.S. "progressives" promote around the world -- including abortion rights, contraception for teenagers and gay rights -- are viewed as an assault on traditional values by many cultures, and have contributed to the blowback of Islamic rage

That is an interesting point. Certainly the Islamists way of handling abortion (stoning the woman to death, once she has delivered the baby), conception for teenagers (making the women wear the hijab or the nijab and never leave the house unless accompanied by a male relative), and gay rights (hanging or beheading gays) is different from what the left promotes.

.... Bin Laden isn't upset because there are U.S. troops in Mecca, as liberals are fond of saying. (There are no U.S. troops in Mecca.)

Actually he never said there were U.S. troops in Mecca, he said they were in Saudia Arabia, and they were there, and now he objects to them being in any Islamic country.

He isn't upset because Washington is allied with despotic regimes in the region. Israel aside, what other regimes are there in the Middle East?

Actually he objects to the US supporting the despotic regimes because he would prefer to replace them with despotic theocratic regimes that would impose extreme Sharia law on their citizens, like the Taliban.

It isn't all about Israel. (Why hasn't al-Qaeda launched a single attack against Israel?) The thrust of the radical Muslim critique of America is that Islam is under attack from the global forces of atheism and immorality -- and that the United States is leading that attack.....the far left seems to hate Bush nearly as much as it hates bin Laden. Bin Laden may want sharia, or Islamic law, in Baghdad, they reason, but Bush wants sharia in Boston.

If they think that, the left really does not understand Sharia Law. It is not just allowing faith based charities to compete on an equal footing with secular charities for government support, or allowing occasional prayers.

Indeed, leftists routinely portray Bush's war on terrorism as a battle of competing fundamentalisms, Islamic vs. Christian.

Islam was spread by the sword. Christianity was spread by teaching Christ's message.

It is Bush, more than bin Laden, they say, who threatens abortion rights and same-sex marriage and the entire social liberal agenda in the United States.

They should really look at what the Taliban did to the Afghans.