I was going to write some posts on Stealth Jihad as I am reading it, but I’ve just seen such a good summary of the book that I’m going to post that instead. Herb Denenberg has a review in the Philadelphia Bulletin titled Radical Muslims Succeeding In Taking Over The US.  Here are some excerpts, but if you can’t read the book you should read the whole review.

Radical Islam is subverting America without guns or bombs. That’s the subtitle of a frightening and important new book by Robert Spencer, one of the leading authorities on radical Islam.

We may have been spared the guns and bombs of the Islamofascist terrorists since 9/11, but we haven’t been spared their attempt to substitute the laws of Islam for the U.S. Constitution and to make America more like Iran, Saudia Arabia, or the Sudan, where the Muslim laws are in full force.

Europe is far down the road to Islamization, and America is following in its “path to civilizational oblivion.”

Mr. Spencer meticulously documents how the Muslims slowly take over a civilization. This is part of a carefully planned strategy. Mr. Spencer writes, “But in the short-term, the absence of violence, combined with a bit of political savvy – allows the stealth jihadists to do their work more effectively. This is one of the lessons that some jihadists learned from September 11: attack America, and it tends to strike back; but quietly undermine America from within, and there’s a lot less resistance. In fact, people tend not even to notice.”

 Mr. Spencer gives some compelling examples of how the Muslims push their agenda in small steps and big steps. For example, sometimes the steps seem small and of minor importance. In one cemetery in the United Kingdom, to please the Muslims and not offend them, all graves of Muslims and non-Muslims alike face Mecca.

However, sometimes the accommodation is both significant and dangerous. The U.S. government relies on the voice of groups such as INSA for the “Islamic perspective” on U.S. policies. Mr. Spencer cautions, “Of course, the fact that these groups and the enemy we are fighting share the same goal -the Islamization of the Western world – casts some doubt on the utility of the advice we receive from them.”

Only recently, the Bush administration has started to realize these groups share the Islamic supremacist agenda and are working for the Islamization of America. So they have started to distance themselves from them.

But the Bush administration still relies on these groups more than it should, according to Mr. Spencer, who finds, “The recommendations of these groups continue to find their way into official U.S. policies, where they serve to silence those in the government who dissent from the myopic view of Islam as a religion of peace.”

Imagine what’s going to happen in an Obama administration. I predict a new position of Outreach Coordinator to the “Muslim community” who will be chosen from one of these groups.

A Homeland Security report, titled “Terminology to Define the Terrorist Recommendations from American Muslims,” actually said that the words “jihad” and “jihadists” were dropped because they might offend moderate Muslims.

But Spencer points out that “jihad” as a violent movement to spread Islam is sanctioned by many mainstream Muslim scholars, not just a fringe. Then there’s the squelching of criticism:

Mr. Spencer devotes a whole chapter to how the Muslims silence their critics. In some foreign countries they use “death threats, murders, act of mass terrorism and beheadings broadcast over the Internet.”

But in America, where the stealth jihad is employed, more subtle techniques are used. The critics are labeled “bigots,” “hatemongers” and “Islamophobes.” These more subtle techniques may be more effective than death threats. That’s because with death threats there would be reactions and investigations. But Islamicists skillfully play the racism and bigotry card without generating any forceful response.

The Islamic groups also use lawsuits to silence critics. For example, Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, sued Andrew Whitehead and others for saying that CAIR was founded by Hamas supporters, and wants to implement sharia law in America. When Whitehead’s attorneys started asking questions about the funding and operations of CAIR, it dropped the lawsuit.

And here is a central point:

…some of the most influential Islamic spokesmen and leaders in the U.S. as well as leaders elsewhere advocate the Islamization of the U.S. and the world including the implementation of sharia (Muslim) law. Here are some of those statements Mr. Spencer quotes to prove his point:

* “I have complete faith that Islam will invade Europe and America, because Islam has logic and a mission.”

* “I wouldn’t want to create the impression that I wouldn’t like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future.”

* “If only Muslims were clever politically, they could take over the United States and replace its constitutional government with a caliphate.”

* “Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth.”

What to do? Many things, but here are a few of the recommendations of Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC), one of the few members of Congress to take the stealth jihad seriously:

* Examine the non-profit status of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), in view of its objectives.

* Make it an act of sedition or soliticitation of treason to preach or publish materials that call for the death of Americans.

* Cancel scholarship student visa programs with Saudi Arabia until they reform their textbooks. Saudi texts, sent for use in America, promote hatred of non-Muslims.

* Restrict religious visas for imams who come from countries that don’t allow reciprocal visits by non-Muslim clergy.

* Cancel contracts to train Saudi police and security in U.S. counterterrorism tactics, and block the sale of sensitive military munitions to Saudi Arabia. That’s because Saudi Arabia now finances the international jihad.

And the review goes on:

In case you need some more incentives to get involved, here is what the imposition of sharia (Muslim) law would mean. This is according to one authoritative voice, a sheikh that the BBC called “the highest spiritual authority for nearly a billion Sunni Muslims.”

* “When a person has reached puberty and is sane voluntarily apostatizes [i.e. converts] from Islam, he deserves to be killed.”

* “Circumcision is obligatory.” There is some dispute among Muslim authorities on the need for female circumcision. Some say it is obligatory and some say it is just an accepted but not an obligatory practice.

* “The husband may forbid the wife to leave the home.”

* “Musical instruments of all types are unlawful.”

* “The caliph … makes war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians … until they become Muslim or pay the non-Muslim poll tax.”

As Denenberg concludes:

Read Mr. Spencer’s book and you’ll suddenly become a good citizen, and one that wants to work to protect and defend American values.