Response to George Weigel's essay on jihadism in Newsweek 2/4/2008;

This message was submitted to Newsweek as a "Letters to the Editor" in response to a recent article by the above contributor. It was not published.

To the Editor:
I hope that, in the long tradition of good sense of balance, Newsweek will not object to publishing my reflection on Mr. Weigel's article published in the February 4 issue of the Magazine.

George Weigel calls for war against jihadism but what he fails to notice is that war should be waged against the ideology of religious extremism and not jihadism alone. Whether or not we like it, we are surrounded by religious extremisms. The general who claims that "my God is bigger than theirs", the president who follows messages from Heaven to bring freedom and democracy on the top of smart bombs, embody provocative, intolerant and dangerous religious extremism. Settlers who claim that land was given to them by their God and no atrocities can be deplorable enough to fulfill the Divine purpose, Evangelical Christian bigotry that supports this ungodly effort, also fall into this category. They all deserve the same treatment as the jihadists are called to receive. Mr Weigel enlists multiple fronts necessary for the war against jihadism: military, intelligence, economic, energy and home land security fronts. Conspicuously, from this list the front of politics is missing. I propose that a honest political dialog should be started with all these religious extreme forces of today's social realities. With full condemnation of the jihadist terror, I am certain that once meaningful political efforts started, the wind would quickly die out from the sail of jihadist militancy. As a first step, from such dialog we would learn that the jihadists essentially object to foreigners usurping their sacred land: be it the Soviet Union spreading communism in Afghanistan, or the Americans quenching their immense thirst for oil in Saudi Arabia or Iraq.

Respectfully:

Laszlo Hopp