Head-in-the-sand liberals

Writing in the LA Times Sam Harris believes that the West faces a genuine threat from Muslim extremists:

Perhaps I should establish my liberal bone fides at the outset. I'd like to see taxes raised on the wealthy, drugs decriminalized and homosexuals free to marry. I also think that the Bush administration deserves most of the criticism it has received in the last six years — especially with respect to its waging of the war in Iraq, its scuttling of science and its fiscal irresponsibility.

But my correspondence with liberals has convinced me that liberalism has grown dangerously out of touch with the realities of our world — specifically with what devout Muslims actually believe about the West, about paradise and about the ultimate ascendance of their faith.

Harris continues on to speculate that security-minded Americans will reject liberalism for the certitude and fervor of the religious right: “Increasingly, Americans will come to believe that the only people hard-headed enough to fight the religious lunatics of the Muslim world are the religious lunatics of the West.” Yeesh - is it end of days already? I’d like to think that the West is made of tougher stuff.