A call to grasp with whom we’re fighting

don’t need more isolation, as has happened in Europe.

This encourages the Saipovs in America to cleave to Shariah supremacism. It leads to more Saipovs committing mass murder.

Could it be that our politics, or at least our rhetoric, prevents us from seeing a way forward here, to realize our fight is with Shariah supremacism, not Islam?

It will be difficult to convince the Democrats. They belong to the open borders party, always pushing for more immigration, not less. Democrats loathe even mentioning Islamic terrorism. They’re dogmatically compelled to denounce as a hateful racist anyone who’d use acts of Islamic terrorism to shape immigration policy restrictions. It will also be difficult to convince Republicans. They want border control and believe American citizens should decide who enters this country and who doesn’t. And many in the GOP probably wouldn’t mind if all Muslim immigration was stopped cold.

Each side insists the other is insane. And then comes Saipov, shouting “Allahu akbar,” and dedicating his kills to ISIS.

The problem isn’t ISIS, says Andrew McCarthy, the former federal prosecutor in New York who handled terrorism cases including the 1995 World Trade Center bombing. The problem is bombast, and language, and tribalism shaping our thinking and our policy outcomes.

“It is not ISIS,” McCarthy writes in the National Review. “Jihadist organizations are a symptom. The pathology is Shariah supremacism. If you don’t vet for it, you’re going to keep having attacks ...

“Shariah supremacism is not a religion. It is a totalitarian political ideology with a religious veneer. This is the critical distinction — ideology, not religion. If we cannot vet for Shariah supremacism because the political establishment decides it is not a political ideology but an Islamic religion entitled to all First Amendment protections, then we cannot protect the country. Period.”

But how can the terms of a debate be changed, when Washington isn’t interested in changing those terms or in distinguishing between Islam and Shariah supremicism?