A passage from "The Crisis of Islam"

The following can be found in Bernard Lewis’s book The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror (pp. 157-159): “Usama bin Ladin has made clear how he perceives the struggle by repeatedly defining his enemy as 'crusaders'. The Crusaders, it will be recalled, were neither Americans nor Jews; they were Christians fighting a holy war to recover the lost holy places of Christendom. A “letter to America” published in November 2002, and attributed to Usama bin Ladin, enumerates in some detail various offenses committed not just by the government but also by the people of the United States and sets forth, under seven headings, ‘what we are calling you to do, and what we want from you.’ The first is to embrace Islam; the second, ‘to stop your oppression, lies, immorality, and debauchery’; the third, to discover and admit that America is ‘a nation without principles or manners’, the fourth, to stop supporting Israel in Palestine, the Indians in Kashmir, the Russians against the Chechens, and the Manila government against the Muslims in the southern Phillipines; the fifth, ‘to pack your luggage and get out of our lands'. This is offered as advice for America’s own good, 'so do not force us to send you back as cargo in coffins’. The sixth, ‘to end your support of the corrupt leaders in our countries. Do not interfere in our politics and method of education. Leave us alone, or expect us in New York and Washington; seventh, to deal and interact with the Muslims on the basis of mutual interests and benefits, rather than the policies of subjugation, theft, and occupation. ‘ He continues with “The case against America in this document is very detailed. It includes, apart from the familiar list of specific grievances, a range of accusations both general and particular. These are of varied and usually recognizable provenance, reflecting the successive ideologies that have at different time influenced Middle Eastern politicians and policies and policies. Some date from the Nazi era, e.g. degeneracy and ultimate Jewish control; others from the period of Soviet influence, e.g., capitalist greed and exploitation. Many are of recent European and even American origin, and come from both left and right. They include world pollution and the refusal to sign the Kyoto accords; political corruption through campaign financing; privileging the 'white race'; and, from the right, the neo-Nazi, white supremacist myth that Benjamin Franklin gave warning against the Jewish danger. The sinister role of Jews is stressed in almost all these offenses. "Even the vaunted merits of the American way of life become crime and sins. The liberation of women means debauchery and the commercial use of women as 'consumer products'. Free elections mean that the American people freely choose their rulers and must therefore be held accountable and punishable for those rulers’ misdeeds - that there are no 'innocent civilians'. Worst of all is the separation of church and state: ‘You are the nation who, rather than ruling by the Shariah of Allah in its Constitution and Laws, choose to invent your own laws as you will and desire. You separate religion from your policies, contradicting the pure nature which affirms Absolute Authority to the Lord and your Creator.’ In sum, ‘You are the worst civilization witnessed by the history of mankind.’" That is quite a tall order! It seems that our terrorist enemies want a teensy bit more than changing our foreign policy to be extra super-nice to them. Where should we begin? How should we re-order American society and culture so that the terrorists can LOVE us with all their hearts? Most importantly, what would Ron Paul do? Will he have the First Amendment changed to have a church, or perhaps the mosque, fused to government? If not th