He makes the telling point that many of us don’t have a clue about what motivates radical Islam, while those driving the radical Islamists understand us very well indeed, and reject our western way of doing business not because they don’t understand western/multicultural/postmodern values, but because they do.

Key grafs:

[ . . . ]

“Islamic countries, moreover, are not rejecting Western democracy because they haven’t experienced it. They reject it on principle. For them, the president’s euphonious rhetoric about democratic empowerment is offensive. They believe, sincerely, that authority to rule comes not from the people but from Allah; that there is no separation of religion and politics; that free people do not have authority to legislate contrary to Islamic law; that Muslims are superior to non-Muslims, and men to women; and that violent jihad is a duty whenever Muslims deem themselves under attack … no matter how speciously.

“These people are not morons. They adhere to a highly developed belief system that is centuries old, wildly successful, and for which many are willing to die. They haven’t refused to democratize because the Federalist Papers are not yet out in Arabic. They decline because their leaders have freely chosen to decline. They see us as the mortal enemy of the life they believe Allah commands. Their demurral is wrong, but it is principled, not ignorant. And we insult them by suggesting otherwise.

[ . . . ]

So when you read Mr. Ahmadinejad’s letter, keep in mind that he fully understands that (if not why) we view the world through a postmodern prism which regards force, violence and warfare as being obsolete tools of national survival, and which reduces virtually all issues to ones of racism, western hegemony, oppression, western guilt, victimization, “it’s all our fault-ism,” etc.

It’s profoundly disturbing to me that he should understand the western mind so well, and we the Islamic mind so poorly.

Brian