While President Obama is correct in saying the war on terror is not and mustn't become a war against Islam, it would be foolish to ignore the religious dimension of Islamic terrorism as now reflected in the Holy Week attacks in Brussels. To do that would risk making the secularist world view underlying the strategic thinking of many Western commentators and policy types an obstacle to understanding the present crisis.
But what is the role of religion here? There is a partial answer in a statement by the Islamic State celebrating the attacks in Paris late last year and calling France "the lead carrier of the cross in Europe." Secularist France -- with an official policy of "laicite" (extreme church-state separation) -- a "carrier of the cross"? ISIS appears unaware that times have changed since the days of the Crusades.
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