Quote Originally Posted by Philippus Flavius Homovallumus View Post
If we look at empirically we would note that, currently, Islamic terrorists are unique in a number of ways:

they usually plan to die in their attacks.

They tend to attack soft civilian targets with no military or strategic value.

They are constantly planning attacks on the US and Europe whether or not we are actively fighting their particular organisation or not.

Attacks aim not only to cause terror, but also maximise casualties.

The closest I can come to this sort of MO would be Communists during the last century, but even then the Isalmic terrorists are not the same.

Remember, from the point of view of Westerners this all started with 9/11, an unprovoked attack which led to a punitive war, which led to another war which lead to more terrorists attacks, breakdown in Iraq, then we had the Arab Spring which we failed to support (and initially tried to stop) and now we have IS.

Islamism has been bubbly in the background though, trying to kill us and establish a new Caliphate, all this time.

So you should think about Islam.
They have absolutely no intention of engaging politically with us. The hyperbole has been used in the past to say that Communists and other westernised oppositional organisations want to destroy us, but they always had a political organisation that maintained a voice in the (sort of) mainstream. Not so Islamism, for whom our very being is anathema to them. And while I count myself as a liberal where such norms are reciprocated, I see no point in tolerating people who game the system to destroy our liberal democracy.