Required Reading…...

"While no force of arms could defeat the armies of the West, it was their moral and spiritual void that ultimately vanquished them…"

— Prayers for the Assassin 

…that I promise you'll enjoy (and leave you genuinely and profoundly troubled). It's the Assassin Trilogy from Robert Ferrigno. From the Amazon review:

From Book 1: SEATTLE, 2040. The Space Needle lies crumpled. Veiled women hurry through the busy streets. Alcohol is outlawed, replaced by Jihad Cola, and mosques dot the skyline. New York and Washington, D.C., are nuclear wastelands. Phoenix is abandoned, Chicago the site of a civil war battle. At the edges of the empire, Islamic and Christian forces fight for control of a very different United States.

Enormous in scope and brilliantly imagined, Prayers for the Assassin promises to be the powerhouse read of the year. Burning with cinematic violence, fiendish betrayal, and global intrigue, Robert Ferrigno's sensational thriller asks: What would happen to America if the terrorists won?

Here's Ferrigno's website. When I read the first book in the series, Prayer for the Assassin, I was blown away. I think Ferrigno is a brilliant writer (I believe I discovered him back in The Horse Latitude days in the 1990s). I had a couple of small issues with the book, because in 2006 I found it hard to imagine that 1) Israelis would be demonized and 2) guns would be largely unavailable.

Interestingly enough, Mr. Ferrigno came on the blog and discussed his reasoning. Now, almost 10 years later, I have to admit that Mr. Ferringo saw clearer than I did. I'm sorry, sir.

The books are classic thrillers, and you will not be able to put them down. BTW, when the great Mark Steyn reviewed Prayers for the Assassin for Canada's McLeans Magazine, he was hauled before the Canadian Human Rights Commission, Canada's Star Chamber for criticism (or even mention) of Islam.

There's an interesting essay on the trilogy from the conservative Hudson Institute…they quote one of the characters in the book with is particularly applicable these days:

The U.S. military won every battle [in Iraq], but they had no voice, no message that could be heard. [Those who monitored TV stations] never saw a hero, only the dead. A war without heroes, without victories. Only petty atrocities inflated for all the world to see, clucked over by millionaire news anchors and fatuous movie stars. 

[The] president himself apologized. “We must show that we are more humane than the terrorists,” he said. . . . Good fortune beyond the . . . wildest dreams [of America’s opponents], an enemy who wanted to be loved. Be ashamed of the war and soon you will be ashamed of the warriors—the warriors got that message soon enough. . . . The Iraq debacle broke the nation’s spirit, hobbled its ability to defend itself. The former regime never recovered.

What brought this to mind was the Virginia school district, in the interest of better calligraphy (I thought they stopped teaching cursive writing…hmmmmmmmm), students were required to meticulously copy the shahada, the Islamic declaration of faith in the original Arabic. This is from Religious Facts:

In Islam, the first of the five pillars is the shahada. Shahada is the Muslim profession of faith, expressing the two simple, fundamental beliefs that make one a Muslim: La ilaha illa Allah wa-Muhammad rasul Allah. There is no god but God and Muhammad is the prophet of Allah. Sincere recitation of this confession of faith before of two Muslims is the sole requirement for those who wish to join the Muslim community. It represents acceptance not only of Allah and his prophet, but of the entirety of Islam. As one of the Pillars, the shahada must be recited correctly aloud with full understanding and internal assent at least once in every Muslim's lifetime.

Note that recitation of the shahada in front of two Muslims is all that's necessary you join the religion of Islam…okay, there's a bit more to it than that, but the shahada is the First Pillar the first and most profound step. My professor of Islamic Studies used to say that Islam was an easy religion to get into, but to get out you'd probably have to leave your head behind.

The Assassin trilogy are thrillers, but they're thrillers that will leave a queasy feeling in your stomach like, say, someone stepped in the collective grave of Western Civilization. Buy 'em; read 'em...