David Petraeus: Be Nice To Muslims, Or They Might Blow Us Up
Photo of Jonah Bennett
Jonah Bennett
National Security/Foreign Policy Reporter
4:29 PM 05/13/2016
Former CIA director David Petraeus leaves the Federal Courthouse in Charlotte, North Carolina, April 23, 2015. Petraeus was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay a $100,000 fine after pleading guilty to mishandling classified information. REUTERS/Chris Keane.
In an op-ed for The Washington Post published Friday, former CIA Director David Petraeus said increasing anti-Muslim rhetoric in the United States threatens to drive more “moderate” Muslims to terrorism.
For Petraeus, the rapid increase of ugly rhetoric against Muslims and Islam threatens to engulf even “moderate” Muslims. This is exactly what terror groups like al-Qaida and the Islamic State want, as it supports their vision of the world as one divided between the forces of Islam and the forces of the decadent, satanic west. These groups then seize on a sort of “clash of civilizations” rhetoric to drive recruitment and push moderate Muslims into their ranks.
Muslims in the West are apparently so at risk of joining up with al-Qaida, that Petraeus thinks we need to police our own speech, as not to offend them and face the potential consequence of a growing, violent fifth column taking shape in the West.
“Rather than making our country safer, they will compound the already grave terrorist danger to our citizens,” Petraeus wrote. “As ideas, they are toxic and, indeed, non-biodegradable — a kind of poison that, once released into our body politic, is not easily expunged.”
Read more:
http://dailycaller.com/2016/05/13/petraeus-be-nice-to-muslims-or-they-might-blow-us-up/#ixzz48cd5p4e8
