New American Hero: Andy McCarthy

America’s Must Read: The Grand Jihad, by Andrew McCarthy

There may not be a more important book in the last ten years (or the next ten) than Andy McCarthy’s “The Grand Jihad”. For stepping up and being unafraid to tread where political correctness screams that one must not go, Mr. McCarthy is a New American Hero. For those of us paying attention to what is going on in America—and that’s a majority that is growing larger every day—and those of us who have had the gut feeling for a long time that the whole ‘religion of peace’ mantra regarding Islam just doesn’t ring true, McCarthy’s book is an indispensable resource.

Mr. McCarthy is a former US Attorney in the Southern District of New York, a place where he earned accolades for his role in prosecuting the blind Sheikh who masterminded the first World Trade Center bombing. That prosecution became the foundation for McCarthy’s book, “Willful Blindness”—an important book in its own right because of the light it throws on our judicial system’s strengths and weaknesses as the venue for stopping terrorism. But “The Grand Jihad” is infinitely more important, because it examines far more broadly the critical questions of what Islam and Muslim activists are trying to do in America and the world. Equally important, it takes a good long look at the words and actions of Obama toward Islam and Muslims.

McCarthy’s book will not lift your spirits, and it is so professional, thorough and discouraging as to move the reader right to the edge of giving up. But the facts that (1) he had the courage to write it, (2) Encounter Books had the courage to publish it, and (3) we still live in a country where the book has not been banned by some politically correct board of censorship—gives some reason for hope.

As we’ve written before, Islam’s sharia law cannot be reconciled with the America of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Islamic experts, whether believers or non-believers, know this. And unless and until McCarthy’s thoroughly researched and precisely documented examination of Islam and its various activist groups is refuted as wrong by an equally researched and documented work—and it won’t be refuted because it can’t be refuted—American policymakers have been presented with exactly how and why Islam is a mortal threat to freedom in America and, ultimately, to Judeo-Christian civilization itself. ‘Eyes wide open’ is the only outcome of a careful read of “The Grand Jihad”; the only question left is whether Americans will be able to summon the clarity and courage to face, reverse and defeat this threat.

As we wrote when first launching Brushfires of Freedom:

"What people believe God to be, and what they believe themselves to be in relation to God, determines their concept of freedom, virtue, justice and the purpose of life. The ‘war on terror’ may be discussed in terms of economic conditions, number of angry males under age 30, territories, skin color, or oil, but the core conflict is based on radically different views of what God is—and what a man (and woman) created by that God is."

And Sir Winston Churchill, whose writings are perhaps a tad better known than those of Brushfires of Freedom, captured the reality of the Islamic culture—the cumulative effect of its concept of freedom, virtue, justice and the purpose of life—when he wrote (quoted in “The Grand Jihad at pp. 300 and 302):

“How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property—either as a child, a wife, or a concubine—must delay the final extinction of slavery…

The influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world…”

But Churchill also zeroed in on the distinction that gives the world hope: there is a difference between Muslims and Islam. The problem is not people but doctrine.

Doctrine may or may not change, but the human heart’s receptiveness to doctrine can and does change, little by little, day by day. In Christian terms, the light of the Christ does this, and it has not been extinguished and cannot be extinguished. This light leads thought to the truth of God and man, a truth not built on violence and oppression and hatred but on two commandments: (1) love God and keep His commandments, and (2) ‘love thy neighbor as thyself’. Eventually all humanity will be blessed as it wakes up to this fact.

Andy McCarthy probably didn’t view himself in the role of Judeo-Christian pastor in writing his book, but the wakeup call is as clear as any you’ll hear from any pulpit. “The Grand Jihad”, published in the year 2010, has made Andy McCarthy a New American Hero.

Paul Gable

July 8, 2010