And so in two sentences Erdogan dismisses the concept on which the Western world has placed its hopes of survival and peace.

Islam is Islam. Will this be discussed in the Western media? Will American and European analysts publicly take up the question of whether or not Erdogan is right, and what the implications might be if he is? Or will they ignore this and continue to assume in all their analyses that the opposite is true, and to dismiss as “ideologues” or “Islamophobes” those who point out that influential Muslims like Erdogan are saying things like this?

Which course do you think they’ll choose?

Will Western leaders then begin discussing political Islam and its implications openly? Or will they ignore this and continue to pretend that Islam has no inherent or traditional political character, or if it does, it is infinitely malleable anyway, and can be massaged without difficulty into something completely benign?

Which course do you think they’ll choose?

“PM Erdogan: The Term ‘Moderate Islam’ Is Ugly And Offensive; There Is No Moderate Islam; Islam Is Islam,” from the MEMRI Blog (thanks to Mackie):