It Is Time for the Muslim World to Take Responsibility for Itself

Two men ran over another man with their car and then dragged him into the street and hacked him to death, trying to behead him, with large kitchen knives and machetes near a London military barracks Wednesday afternoon, in what British authorities were investigating as a terrorist act. The two attackers were finally shot by police and taken to hospital. British Prime Minister David Cameron, in Paris for talks with French President Hollande, called the killing "truly shocking" and said he had asked Home Secretary Theresa May to call an urgent meeting of the government's Cobra emergency committee. May was briefed by Britain's domestic security service, MI-5, and by police on what she called a "sickening and barbaric" attack. Britain's Ministry of Defense said it was urgently investigating reports that a serving soldier was the victim, and although the MoD has said it is extremely likely he was a soldier, as of this hour that has not been offficially confirmed. Live television images of the scene, many of which I have personally watched, show a trail of blood staining a wide area of street and pavement, cordoned off streets and crime scene investigators marking the scene. An AP News reporter talked with Fred Oyat, a 44-year-old who lives in a high-rise near where the attack occurred. He said that he heard four gun shots and then went straight to the window and saw a man lying in the street bleeding profusely. "There were four knives on the ground - big kitchen knives. The knives were very bloody," Oyat said. David Dixon, head teacher of a nearby primary school, said police told him there was a serious incident nearby. He said he saw a body lying in the road outside. He told the BBC that he then made sure the children were inside and put the school into lockdown mode. He said he then heard shots fired. Other eyewitnesses interviewed by Sky News said the two assailants stayed at the attack scene, urging people to take photos of them and their victim. One British broadcaster ran video footage of what appeared to be one of the attackers, his hands covered in blood, making political statements about "an eye for an eye" to an unknown cameraperson as a body lay behind him on the ground. Speaking with what Sky News anchormen later described as a south London accent, the man apologized for the women passers-by who "have had to witness this" attack, saying that "in our land our women have to see the same." He gave no indication what that land was. David Cameron, in a brief joint news conference in Paris with the French president, said, "...we have had these attacks before but because of the indomitable British spirit, we will never buckle in the face of these threats....they will never win because they cannot defeat the values we hold dear." British political leaders and police are calling for calm and for "a measured response" to today's attack. The Muslim Council of Britain has condemned the attack as barbaric, saying it has no basis in Islam's teachings. The Council called for calm and solidarity in the aftermath of the attack. But there are unofficial reports of an attack on a mosque in Essex in southern England this evening. Meanwhile, security has been tightened at all London military barracks. ~~~~~ Dear readers, it is important to call for calm and to show the measured behavior taught by our western judeo-christian tradition. The solution is not to meet extremism with extremism. The solution is to demand that Islam put its own house in order. It is not Christians or Jews who are attempting to terrorize the world into submission to a violently inhumane political construct. That construct terrorizes and offends the Five Pillars of Islam and those who follow their ecepts just as much as it does us. But, we cannot educate Muslim children in Moslem countries. We cannot use force to bring down every Muslim dictator who mistreats his own people. We cannot accept every peace-loving Muslim into our societies only to have radical imams and organizers turn their children into homegrown terrorists. We cannot enforce basic human liberties and rights for all the citizens of all Muslim nations. We cannot create functioning Muslim economies and jobs. Only Muslims can do these things in a way that will eradicate islamist terrorism by giving Muslims everywhere the kinds of lives they long for and deserve - not fake western democracies but real Muslim societies based on personal development that creates real families, real communities, real religious values. We can help when asked, but we cannot do for Muslims what they must do for themselves. And until Muslims cast off their fear and lethargy and act - terrorist acts will continue, Muslims will be less welcome than they should be, or want to be, in Europe and America, and Muslims will suffer more than we ever will, both at the hands of islamist terrorists and as outsiders in the community of nations. Think about it. There must be Muslim leaders who can get the reforms started. Find them. Begin.