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But the threat posed by the radical Islamists represents an unusual conflict, unlike any experienced by our nation before: we face an enemy that is not a state.

America is experiencing an Islamist cultural-political offensive designed to undermine and destroy our civilization.

We know that we can defeat Islamist terrorism without violating our ideals; indeed, we must. These ideals, these American ideals.

Now we have a generational threat struggle called Islamist extremism.

The challenge is to lend conviction even to the voices which advocate views I find personally abhorrent, whether they are political Islamists or officers justifying a coup.

We're still stymied by the old stand-off between those who wish to fight terrorism and resistance fighters.

Today, fear of bloodshed is forcing us into recognizing new taboos: those of Muslims.

The challenge for Muslims in America is to respect the fears of ordinary people while resisting the exploitation of those fears by political parties, lobbies and sectors of the media. To meet this challenge, Muslims must reassess their own involvement, behavior and contributions in American society.

It isn't those of us who oppose American aggression in the Muslim world who need manipulative, exploitative reminders about 9/11; it's those who cheer for these policies who are making a follow-up attack ever more likely.

We would betray our values and play into our enemies' hands if we were to treat Muslims differently than anyone else. In fact, to cave to popular sentiment would be to hand a victory to the terrorists, and we should not stand for that.