Curt Anderson

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Islam in the West is the ring of power in The Lord of the Rings. Everyone thinks they can handle it. They think they can use it, moderate it, integrate it, tame it, or negotiate with it. The Ring serves only one master, and it is not the one wearing it. As long as the West thinks it can use Islam, Islam ends up using the West. Just like the Ring amplifies the worst impulses of the one who carries it, Islam reshapes whatever institution allows it inside: Human-rights language becomes a shield for illiberal politics. Free-speech norms become a platform for anti-free-speech doctrines. Religious liberty becomes legal cover for parallel legal systems. Democracy becomes a staircase to end democracy. This is the rule of the Ring: Whoever tries to wield it eventually becomes its servant. Even the well-intentioned fall. Especially the well-intentioned. The West keeps trying different strategies: "Support moderates, integrate communities, counter the extremists, not the ideology, dialogue will soften them, maybe they don’t really mean what they say, economic uplift will change their worldview, second and third generations will modernize." Every one of these is the Council of Elrond arguing that maybe someone, somewhere, might use the Ring differently. But Tolkien’s world and Islam world share the same truth: You can't reform an object built for domination. You can't tame an ideology constructed for supremacy. The Ring can't be debated, reasoned with, or negotiated into moderation. It was forged for one purpose, and it retains that purpose regardless of who wears it. Islam is the same. The only way to destroy the Ring is to take it back to the place where it was forged, the fires of Mount Doom, and burn it in its original source. The same is true for Islam: You can't defeat it with counterterrorism alone. You can't defeat it with border policy alone. You can't defeat it with intelligence operations alone. You can't defeat it through elections, speeches, or interfaith dinners. You must go to its Mordor, its theology, its texts, its jurisprudence, its political creed, its doctrinal foundations, and you must burn it there. Confront the doctrine of jihad. Expose the political blueprint. Discredit the historical narrative. Challenge the legal theory that divides humanity. Break the ideological architecture. Expose it's master. Only then does the Ring lose its power. Everything else is delay. The danger is not in extremism. The danger is in believing you can harness extremism for your benefit. Like the Ring, Islam corrupts even those who oppose it. It drags the center toward its worldview. It forces institutions to accommodate its demands. It shapes the political discourse through intimidation, guilt, or demographic leverage. The Ring does not want to be hidden. It wants to be worn. Islam does not want to coexist. It wants to rule. There is no path to victory that avoids the mountain. There is no shortcut around theology. There is no peace purchased through appeasement. There is no safety in pretending the ideology is harmless. There is no future if you refuse to confront the source of the problem. The West keeps walking in circles around Mount Doom, hoping for an easier route. But there isn’t one. If you want to destroy the Ring, you must go to Mordor. If you want to combat Islam, you must confront its theology. That is the fire in which the ideology was forged. And that is the only fire in which it can be destroyed.

Been at ESPN a long time - this one was an all timer. Before social media, it was as viral as a story can be. I watched it on a tape in the news room. I couldn’t stop watching his teammates.