The Western world’s flaccid response to threats posed by the forces of Islamism is best described by the British author Theodore Dalrymple in his book, The New Vichy Syndrome: Why European Intellectuals Surrender to Barbarism.

Referring to the Danish cartoon controversy of 2005, Dalrymple writes, we are “virtually giving in to demands that certain important subjects (like Islamism) henceforth be placed, de facto, off limits for discussion.”

Dalrymple writes it was obvious that for the West, “the quiet life was clearly preferred to the costs of securing a free one; if only we appeased enough, there would be peace in our time.”

This political cowardice within the Left, camouflaged in a burka of anti-war rhetoric, is visible right here in Canada as well.

Both NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau have demonstrated the symptoms of appeasement

In an interview with Maclean’s on June 29, Mulcair criticized Canada’s role in the coalition now fighting Islamic State (ISIS), claiming, “This is not our fight.”

That may be true for Mulcair, but other Canadians have a more global view of our tiny planet.

We feel for the families of bloggers beheaded in Bangladesh and the Kurds slaughtered in Kobani.

Imagine telling the parents of the girls kidnapped by Nigeria’s Boko Haram jihadis that their fight “is not our fight.”

For someone like myself who has been on the Left all my life, spent time in prison as a socialist, fought for gay rights in hostile Islamic communities and who lives under death threats, Mulcair’s words were a betrayal.

At one time, internationalism was the hallmark of democratic socialists. Today many on the Left have become Sharia Bolsheviks.

It wasn’t just Mulcair’s Maclean’s remark that was offensive to many of us who have suffered the indignities of Islamism.

During the leaders’ debate, the NDP leader quipped:

“(W)e know that a lot of the horrors that we are seeing are the direct result of the last misguided war (U.S invasion of Iraq) …”

I was stunned. Here was a man vying to be Prime Minister of Canada reading a script whose logic could have been taken straight out of the Muslim Brotherhood hymnbook.

In effect, Mulcair was saying it was the fault of America that ISIS was beheading fellow Muslims, pushing homosexuals off the roofs of buildings and making sex slaves out of captured, non-Muslim female prisoners.

Nonsense. Jihadis have been doing this since the dawn of Islam.

I doubt Mulcair knows the recent bloodbath by ISIS in an Iraqi city was not the first such action by jihadis.

On April 21, 1802, 200 years before the United States invaded Iraq, jihadis from the first Saudi state ravaged the Iraqi city of Karbala, killing 5,000 fellow Muslims, plundering the city and destroying the 1,000-year-old tomb of the grandson of Prophet Mohammed.

As for that other man seeking to replace Stephen Harper, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau’s positions on Canada’s and the West’s national security reflect his fear of offending Islamofacists.

When CBC’s Terry Milewski asked Trudeau, “If you don’t want to bomb a group as ghastly as ISIS, when would you ever support real military action?”, Trudeau’s response was shocking. “That’s a nonsensical question,” he retorted.

In 1988, I put up my federal NDP sign, “This time it’s Ed” on my front lawn and voted for Ed Broadbent and his party.

This time, I will not vote NDP.