Hillel Halkin writes in the NY Sun:
If [such as Mahathir] are Islam’s moderates, then Islamic moderation needs to be feared every bit as much as Islamic militancy. Or are the two simply different tactical expressions of the same mind-set? It has been a near-universal shibboleth, especially since the September 11 terrorist attacks, that Western democracies are not at war with Islam but only with violent Islamic fundamentalism….
Islam is not a particularly “peaceful religion.” In fact, historically, it is the world’s only major religion that has been spread mainly by the sword….
The only significant parts of the world that can be said to have been Islamized peacefully are Indonesia and areas of Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
…not only has war been a legitimate way of spreading Islam; for them, military victory has been the ultimate proof of the truth and validity of Islam….
Until modern times, nearly always the winner in its encounters with other cultures and religions, Islam never has learned the art of losing, which is why military and political defeat is so humiliating to it. And of all its modern defeats, none has been as shaming as its defeat by Israel and the Jews, who are seen as a small and contemptible people that Islam had always subjugated.