Why Slam Radical Islamists Right Now?

*corrected 10-8-05:
An interesting pattern emerged regarding a nation's resolve (at least initially) to preemptively combat the radical islamist menace.

Looking only at nonauthoritarian, first world countries we obtained statistics from the CIA's FACTBOOK (Sept 2005). With the conflicting exceptions only of the Netherlands and Canada there was a striking need not to join* the GWOT Coalition when a country's muslim population exceeded 3.5% of total. Dashes denote muslim populations too low to be specified as percentages. Factbook information indicates muslim populations are growing in several countries, including Italy.


Conclusion: Relatively small muslim populations are already potent political forces in some countries and can be considered politically assistive to the islamist terrorist threat regardless of intent or denials. Rather than wait until civil war is inevitable, an overwhelming confrontation should proceed at once. The preemtive GWOT coalition is a necessary demonstration of resolve to fight terrorism wherever it may be supported by host governments. Also important are actions including cooperative intelligence gathering by even noncoalition countries. Confrontation reveals the terrorists' supporters now. This identification is essential for ongoing world security.

Postscript: Population figures for the "Muslim World" are provided here. An estimated 1 - 2% of China's 1.3+ billion citizens are muslim (almost 20 million). Like other religious peoples, most muslims desire a peaceful existence. We cannot forget, however, that as muslim populations grow in relative terms they become politically assistive to radical Islamists by afinity, rather than by overt expressions of support. The result is just as dangerous to peaceful civilization.