Why Islamism Will Spread and Grow

My fellow Americans probably don't want to hear this, but the future world will contain more Islamist governments than the world today. If you have a hard time believing this, consider where we are today:

1. Turkey: The Erdogan government in Turkey is moving rapidly in an Islamist direction and as quickly as it dares away from Ataturk style government. Journalists and bloggers are being jailed as I writes this for being critical of the government. The Turkish army and its generals, the traditional protectors of Turkish democracy and separation of mosque and state, were neutered last year with the suppression of Western-leaning generals. Turkey is already tottering. Any dreams of it become a more European type nation are fading fast and likely to fail.
   
2. Syria: Already the pro-Islamist puppet of Iran.
3. Iran: 'Nuff said.
4. Lebanon: Hezbollah has been democratically elected to power. The Cedar Revolution is dead.
5. Iraq: Democratic government minus democratic institutions favors the organized and the willful. Islamists don't rule there yet, but when Uncle Sam pulls out the last of the troops, that will probably result, and probably through the time-honored tradition of "one man, one vote, one time."
   
6. Afghanistan: The Karzai government will accommodate itself to the Taliban or some similar faction at some point in the future. American's patience will eventually run thin and then we will be back where we started.
7. Gaza: Hamas already rules there.
   
8. Pakistan: Millions of Pakistanis cheered the murder of a pro-Western, anti-sharia politician. Does that tell you which way the wind is blowing?
9. Sudan: South Sudan has voted to secede. Assuming that separation actually comes, the Khartoum government will now be free from any pressures to moderate their already Islamist rule for the sake of minorities in the country.
   
10. Egypt: 1/3 of the world's Arabs dwell in Egypt. She is the only Arab nation with sufficient population and military strength to pose a real, existential threat to Israel, our ally. Revolution has come, at last, yet Mubarak eliminated all the organized, democratic, pro-Western activists over his 30-year reign. Guess who that leaves? Muslim Brotherhood, get ready to take your bow come September, for luck favors the prepared.

Why is this happening? Because once again, the direction of change within the Islamic world is back to a more faithful version of Islam, one more consonant with the teaching of the Koran and the hadith, one which is all-encompassing and swallows religion, politics, diplomacy, and life within its gaping maw. That is what the Islamist are selling and they have lots of willing buyers. The advance of Islamist theology and the military jihad which will come and increase in its wake is the central challenge we will face as Westerners in the 21st century.

How will we respond?

Will it be with rockets, bombs and bullets? With evangelism? With accommodation and appeasement? With submission? Who knows but God Himself. What I do know is that we must not deny the challenge, for denial will not reduce it or remove it. Moreover, as Christians, who believe that all humans are made in God's image and loved by Him, we must find a way to draw the line between protecting ourselves from destruction, and showing love to our enemies.

Where, I wonder, is that line?