An Insight Into Fighting Islamism

Fighting Islamism
By LORRIE GOLDSTEIN

There are few original thinkers in Canadian journalism. George Jonas is one of them.

He's one of those rare writers who can get you to think about something in a new way.

Jonas doesn't just regurgitate someone else's ideas or rehash conventional wisdom with his own spin like, gosh, almost anybody in the Parliamentary Press Gallery, save for Greg Weston.

He's just come out with a new book (his 14th) titled Reflections on Islam published by Key Porter.

It's typical Jonas -- thoughtful, engaging, elegant and simply, not simplistically, written.

I have just three complaints.

(1) It's not actually Jonas' reflections on Islam. It's a collection of columns written for the National Post and CanWest News published between 2001 and 2006 on how the liberal West can best deal with radical Islam, or Islamism.

(2) Books composed of collected newspaper columns are, in my view, a bit lazy -- like trying to get paid twice for the same job. An entire Jonas book reflecting on Islam would be a spectacular read. This isn't it. Let's hope Jonas writes it someday.

(3) As happens so often in the airy-fairy world of Canadian publishing, Jonas' years spent writing for the Sun chain have been magically expunged from his biographical record. Typical.

Now for the good stuff.

Having been one of many editors Jonas has had to endure over the years, I can truthfully tell you he is a gentleman and a scholar -- brilliant but humble. Genuinely nice.

The acid test? My administrative assistant, back when I had one, adored him. That's the mark of a writer whose public persona is the same as his real one -- a rarity.

Reflections on Islam is filled with typical Jonas insights that have you saying, or at least had me saying, "geez, why didn't I think of that?"

Examples? Jonas' observation about the endlessly-repeated, politically correct mantra ever since 9/11 that we are "at war against terrorism, not Islam."

Here's Jonas: "We're not at war with 'terrorism.' Terrorism is a weapon, not an opponent. We've been at war with militant, fundamentalist Islam that uses terrorism as a weapon."

How about the constant observation that most of the world's 1.2 billion Muslims want to live in peace?

Here's Jonas: "It's essential to remember that 99.9% of Muslims and Arabs aren't terrorists. But a parallel truth is that 100% of the terrorists who currently threaten us are Muslims and/or Arabs. President Bush spoke of the need to 'smoke terrorists out of their caves.' The trouble is, the terrorists' caves aren't all in Afghanistan. Some are in New Jersey and Florida. Others, no doubt, are in Ontario or Quebec. Much as we dislike ethnic or religious profiling for self-evident reasons, we can't disregard the fact that the current crop of terrorists recruit their members from specific religious and ethnic groups, and use their communities for camouflage."

Later, he adds: "If only 0.1% of all Muslims who reside in North America are willing to participate in militant acts against the West, or support in some material way the ones who do, it means that Osama bin Laden has thousands of troops at his disposal right in our midst."

And, he reminds us, it only took 19 to carry out 9/11.

Anyway, I highly recommend this book by our former Sun colleague.