WELCOME TO AMERICA, DR. BASSAM TIBI

Dr. Bassam Tibi, a Syrian-born professor of International Relations at the University of Goettingen in Germany, with an appointment at Cornell, as well, has been trying to warn the Germans about the danger of radical Islamism.

As reported by Margaret Wente:

Dr. Tibi is impatient with the endlessly repeated nostrum that Islam is "a religion of peace." "When you study religion, you do not study texts, you study social facts. A Muslim boy is torching cars and he is thinking he is waging jihad. Religion has nothing to do with terrorism. But you can use it to legitimate terrorism. There is a conflict -- it is social and economic, but it is articulated in religious language." And the quest of converting the entire world to Islam, he insists, is an immutable fixture of the Muslim worldview.

I asked Dr. Tibi how many of Germany's 3.2 million Muslims share his progressive, secular views. "Maybe a few thousand," he said.

This is a man who knows whereof he speaks:

"Europeans don't know what Islamism is," he argues. "We are talking about a new totalitarianism. And Islamists are establishing themselves in Europe with great success." They thrive, thanks to Europe's tolerance of the intolerable.

Dr. Tibi, a Muslim born in Syria, is persona non grata there.

He's not too popular in Germany either, where he has been accused of inciting Islamophobia. "It is most disturbing to see how writers who try to warn about the totalitarian character of Islamism are defamed as racists," he says. "This wrong-headed political correctness prevents any honest discussion about the subject."

In fact, Dr. Tibi is leaving Germany for the United States:

There's a twist to this story, and it, too, is not a happy one. Dr. Tibi is getting out, moving to the U.S., where he has been a visiting professor at Harvard and Cornell -- not only because his views are more respected there, but because, after 44 years, he still feels like an outsider here. "I love Germany," he says. "I love the German language, and there are many decent Germans.

"But I believe Germany is an ethnically exclusive country. Bassam is not a German name. A Muslim is not a German. And there is no space for me in an ethnically exclusive country."

It's good to know that the USA is still a beacon of freedom for courageous and clear-thinking men like Dr. Bassam Tibi.

He will be welcome here, although probably no more welcome in the politically-correct, Islamist-sympathizing departments of "Middle East Studies" than he was in German academia. Still, there will be more open avenues for him to continue his work in America, and we welcome his future contributions to our intellectual and political life.