by (Hat tip to Melanie Phillips)
Bernard Lewis gave a must-read speech at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research on March 7th.
Old news to many, but new to me. Very interesting reading. A key paragraph:
The declaration of war begins at the very beginning of Islam. There are certain letters purported to have been written by the Prophet Muhammad to the Christian Byzantine emperor, the emperor of Persia, and various other rulers, saying, “I have now brought God’s final message. Your time has passed. Your beliefs are superseded. Accept my mission and my faith or resign or submit–you are finished.” The authenticity of these prophetic letters is doubted, but the message is clear and authentic in the sense that it does represent the long dominant view of the Islamic world.
