The bad news about the resolution of the Abdul Rahman case won’t be reported much but it has larger consequences than the life of this one man.  The bad news is that he had to escape Afghanistan at all.  Political pressure and a legal trick was used to release him long enough for him to escape with his life, but the principle that anyone who converts away from Islam will and should be executed stands firm and unchallenged apparently within the entire Islamic world.  Executing a man for using his freedom of religion to leave Islam is the overwhelming consensus of Islamic peoples.  This is not the belief of an ‘extreme element’ or a ‘minority’. 

This lays bare the truth that Islam is not a ‘religion of peace’.  The principle that anyone who leaves Islam should and will be executed is incompatible with Western civilization, and is a threat to the very foundation of life as we know it in the West.  This near universal belief certainly isn’t ‘peaceful’.  Without Freedom of Belief and Religion the concept of Liberty has no meaning.  Life would go on in a world without freedom of conscience and belief but it would not resemble the one we have today at all.

If Islam can’t be challenged then we are all inevitably going to live under an Islamic Theocracy or Dictatorship similar to those in the Muslim World today.  That is Al Quaeda’s plan, the Islamist plan, to terrorize us into accepting Islamic rule by making continuing disobedience to Islam too costly.  The most recent example of this strategy at work in the West was the Mohammed Cartoon Controversy, and they overwhelmingly succeeded in dramatically reducing our fundamental Freedom of Speech.  We’ve known about this Islamist plan for a while but the difference here is that the facts are piling up that the vast majority of Muslims agree with this goal, if not the means to achieve it.  The overwhelming intolerance of Islam to other faiths and the willingness of the overwhelming majority of the Muslim masses to kill to ensure Islamic supremacy shows the truth of their intentions.  They do not desire to live quietly as neighbors with respect for other beliefs, and they are willing to at least accept the killing of those that conflict with Islam.

The Tipping Point is hitting more and more people as the evidence mounts.  A major publication is finally publishing the sorts of hard questions that should have been asked and answered after 9/11 but weren’t for the sake of diplomacy and the hope that we could finesse the situation, and for fears of appearing ‘racist’.  The reality of the clear conflict is finally sinking in enough to override these PC restrictions on discussion about the true nature of Islam.  Michelle Malkin points to the questions just published by Investors Business Daily (go read it all):

Generally speaking, those questions focus on whether the Quran does indeed promote violence against non-Muslims, and how many of the terrorists’ ideas - about the violent jihad, the self-immolation, the kidnappings, even the beheadings - come right out of the text? But even more specifically:

Is Islam the only religion with a doctrine, theology and legal system that mandates warfare against unbelievers?

Is it true that 26 chapters of the Quran deal with jihad, a fight able-bodied believers are obligated to join (Surah 2:216), and that the text orders Muslims to "instill terror into the hearts of the unbeliever" and to "smite above their necks" (8:12)?

Is the "test" of loyalty to Allah not good acts or faith in general, but martyrdom that results from fighting unbelievers (47:4) - the only assurance of salvation in Islam (4:74; 9:111)?

…

Does Islam advocate expansion by force? And is the final command of jihad, as revealed to Muhammad in the Quran, to conquer the world in the name of Islam (9:29)?

Is Islam the only religion that does not teach the Golden Rule (48:29)? Does the Quran instead teach violence and hatred against non-Muslims, specifically Jews and Christians (5:50)?

There are other questions, but these should do for a start. If the answers are "yes," then at least Americans will know there’s no such thing as moderate Islam, even as they trust that there are moderate Muslims who do not act out on its violent commands. (emphasis added)

I have yet to hear any Muslims who do anything other than assert that Islam is a ‘religion of peace’ when such questions are asked, and follow up by asserting that any quotes from the Koran are quoted out of context by people who don’t understand their meaning.  They absolutely refuse to discuss and answer the questions and quickly accuse anyone trying to press them of bias or racism.  But they don’t deny the quotes and it becomes increasingly clear it is because they are correctly understood quotes that Muslim spokesmen know they can’t admit in the West.  There are specific injunctions in the Koran giving Muslims the right to lie to unbelievers when necessary, and they are doing exactly that by misdirecting the public.

The evidence grows daily that the real fringe minority within Islam are the ‘moderates’.  Its harder and harder to fit the facts into any other picture.  Time will tell but right now it isn’t looking like Democracy is going to change the support for attacks against us, and may even help Islamists with resources and diplomatic support.