Medary.com

Chester considers The Key Strategic Question:

Is Islam compatible with a free society?

This is the key strategic question of our day.

In October, William Buckley wrote:

The moment has not come, but it is around the corner, when non-Muslims will reasonably demand to have evidence that the Muslim faith can operate within boundaries in which Christians and Jews (and many non-believers) live and work without unconstitutional distraction.

[h-t to a Belmont Club commenter]

Buckley is correct that this is a question demanding an answer, but he misjudges the timing of its asking and answering. The truth is that assumed answers to this question have been fundamental in developing our strategies in the war on terror, and that we have yet to answer it definitively.

Is Islam compatible with a free society? A 'yes' answer offers a far different set of strategic imperatives than a 'no' answer.

This is the $64,000, elephant-in-the-room question that we're all dancing around. Can Islam be compatible with classical Western liberal society? Only Muslims themselves can answer that question.