Senator Rick Santorum is making sharia a big part of his campaign pitch:
"Today our leaders have opted for political correctness, referring to our theologically motivated enemies as simply terrorists," he said.
"But terrorism is a tactic, not an ideology. This new existential threat to America, Sharia and its violent iteration jihadism, has yet to be adequately explained by our leaders -- except in using the term terror to describe its military profile that it's violent, widespread and fanatical. But it's more, including non-violent efforts to insinuate Sharia law in Western countries, including our own."
Of course, Sharia is not an ideology either--"any observant Muslim would consider him or herself a Sharia adherent." When Santorum makes no distinction between sharia and terrorism, he's saying that every observant Muslim on the planet might as well be an enemy of the United States.
The use of the term "existential threat" here is odd as well. Does Santorum really think that al Qaeda is going to defeat or destroy the United States? Or does he merely believe that American Muslims, through some kind of stealth campaign, will manage to impose Taliban-style religious law on the U.S.? Seems far fetched, given that Santorum and his religious right colleagues can't even convince a majority of Americans that gay people shouldn't be allowed to get married.
