Daniel Pipes begins his important article by asking the question: "After defeating fascists and communists, can the West now defeat the Islamists?"
He describes that which hinders the West - pacifism, self-hatred, and complacency - and concludes his article this way:
Pacifism, self-hatred and complacency are lengthening the war against radical Islam and causing undue casualties. Only after absorbing catastrophic human and property losses will left-leaning Westerners likely overcome this triple affliction and confront the true scope
of the threat. The civilized world will likely then prevail, but belatedly and at a higher cost than need have been.
Should Islamists get smart and avoid mass destruction, but instead stick to the lawful, political, non-violent route, and should their movement remain vital, it is difficult to see what will stop them.
On this last point, Pipes had written earlier in this article:
Islamists deploy formidable capabilities, however, that go far beyond small-scale terrorism: · A huge number of committed cadres. If Islamists constitute 10% to 15% of the Muslim population worldwide, they number some 125 to 200 million persons, or a far greater total than all the fascists and communists, combined, who ever lived
. . . - A non-violent approach – what I call "lawful Islamism" – that pursues Islamification through educational, political, and religious means, without recourse to illegality or terrorism. Lawful Islamism is proving successful in Muslim-majority countries like Algeria and Muslim-minority ones like the United Kingdom.
Pipes' article is important reading. This brief citation cannot do it justice. Of related significance, is an article by Mark Tooley discussing the Religious Left's pacifism at the expense of traditional Christian just war teachings. Also on the subject of the Religious Left, see this previous post.