My point is not that Buchanan is contemplating a conversion to Islam, although that would be fascinating. It's just that he obviously admires the muscularity of the Jihadists' religious politics. His lament is that Christians are not as tough. Buchanan likes nothing more than conflict, and a good civilizational conflict between Christian and Muslim theocrats would doubtless thrill him. And from 9/11 onwards, many members of the religious right have indeed opined that Islamist loathing of American "decadence" is partly deserved. The real war, however, is between liberty and theocrats of all kinds, between limited government and religious statism, between the American guarantee of freedom from government-imposed religion and the radical Muslim insistence of a fusion beween church and state. In this war, Buchanan is indeed on the opposing side.

Posted by Hey Paul   |   Tuesday, November 30, 2004