Excerpt:
Yesterday, a New York City panel paved the way for the building of the controversial "9/11 mosque" near Ground Zero. While vexing to many, there is one unintended consequence to this entire affair that deserves noting: like the 9/11 strikes a decade earlier, the controversy surrounding the 9/11 mosque has also been creating a stir, been making people think and talk — about Islam.
Consider: Before the Islamist strikes of 9/11, mainstream America was incognizant of the threat posed by radical Islam. Islamic apologetics and anti-U.S. polemics were unquestioned orthodoxy, not only in their natural habitat — academia — but more generally. After 9/11, however, the veil was partially lifted: a flood of books dealing with Islam, political Islam, jihad, sharia, "dhimmitude," and any number of related topics appeared; politically incorrect books on Islam became bestsellers. The media began at least to acknowledge the existence of radical Islam; biased and politicized academics were exposed and refuted.
In other words, one unintended consequence of 9/11 was to make more Americans take note of Islam — which led to greater scrutiny of its formerly esoteric epistemology. After 9/11, it was no longer a few aging Orientalists who knew, for instance, that military jihad is obligatory in Islam, or that enmity for the infidel is standard, or that women and dhimmis are subjugated. The layman — the heart of democracy — began to be aware.