Pan-Islamism Challenges the Idea of the Nation State

In this article from Sun Times columnist Mark Steyn we look at the effects of terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and how they seek to undermine the validity of the nations in which they operate. And as Steyn points out, the recent events in Lebanon show that this is not just limited to their attacks on Western civilization. What they are working towards is a breakdown in the civilized order of the world. For that breakdown would serve their puspose and allow them to move in and take over.

We take it for granted that some things are the normal state of the world in which we live. We expect that we will be able to deal with our fellow citizens in a rational manner on a day to day basis. We expect that we will be able to go to work in the morning and come home at night without having to dodge bullets and bombs. We expect that random violence is rare and security the norm. And we expect that laws to protect us are the standard and that life will be more or less regular and predictable. And it is all of these things that the terrorists seek to undermine.

For the purpose of a nation state and its government is to establish a system of justice and insure domestic tranquility. For a civilized people are a people who can work to achieve their ends on a day to day basis without the kind of random and ceaseless violence which the Islamists seek to impose on us.

The most recent attempt by the terrorists to blow up commercial aircraft in mid-Atlantic flight is yet another example of the Jihadists disrupting the civilized order and replacing it with random chaos. It doesn't take much imagination to look at the ruins of the Arab world and to see the future that awaits us if we do not destroy the cancer of Islamofascism before it drags us all back to the dark ages.