After four paragraphs of drivel about abbreviations for dates of events I'm moving on. Good stuff to read when you're having trouble sleeping.

Max, Tokyo, Japan

If the Arabic world saw the emergence of the state of Israel as a "catastrophe," it ain't seen nothing yet.

The *real*, bona fide disaster for the Arab world will be when -- not if -- new energy sources replace oil (pick one: solar power, fusion, safe fission, other).

When that happens -- perhaps this century -- the Middle East will collapse like a house of cards, and the rest of the world will gratefully ignore it.

Shy Person, Hicksville,

And yet, London and its citizenry are readiying themselves for a mass celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Castro's Revolution, a Death Cult that has spreaded terror in five continents and (in 1962) almost blew the world to smitherenns!!! Congratulations!!

Nestor D, Los Angeles, California

The upsetting part to this is that Muslims, radical or not, seem to have fewer opportunities to shed their religion and become clear-thinking individuals free from the command of imam central. I think that there should be legislation to enable Muslims in the Western countries to freely drop Islam without fear of vigilante or so-called 'honour' killings to apostates.

Terry, Montreal, Canada

Excellent article. And once again there are too many who refuse to listen because Islam (despite not being a race or remotely resembling one in any way) is a cult mainly on non-whites and goes by that shield of all shields description..a religion.

Hitler also spoke of National Socialism becoming the religion of the German people. he spoke in great buildings that were cathedrals by any other name and he spoke of might and sacrifice.
Like Clerics he spoke of the enemy being those who are not part of National Socialism, he spoke of the evil Jew, the untrustworthy lovers of democracy (the Nazis, like Hamas, used deomocracy to gain power to kill democracy) and the lesser creeds and beliefs.

Fascist Islam had already shook hands with fascist National Socialism, had already formed it's own SS Division and when it's partner in madness and Jewish hate died it carried on regardless.

It is now the greatest non-natural threat to all our lives (and how we live them) since Stalin & Hitler.

Dave B, Stoke, UK

Perfect. My thoughts personified and expanded. Thank you
Its fear and ignorance of what to do with that fear that lead the slack jawed masses in the west to blame themselves and their leaders for Islamist brutality. But historically fools have always been in the majority, and sadly they guide nations.

Rob, New York, NY

Death cult is about right (in fact Lord Ali called it exactly that after 7/7) - but Id compare it more to the Baader Meinhoff gang and Red Brigade of the 70's rather than Bolshevism / Nazism. Educated and (relatively) privileged middle class kids, like Bin Laden and Ulrike Meinhoff, committing mass murder to bring about a society that they would hate if it really existed is nothing new. There are always a few who never grow out of their facile student radicalism. I think that perhaps we spend far too much time agonising over the motivations of a small minority of Muslims who think that blowing themselves up in public place is a way to restore the medieval caliphate and that they would really want to live in such a society even if it existed. The detachment of Jihadis from reality precludes any meeting of minds, we might as well invest our energies in stopping their actions and leave the understanding bit to God.

Mark Minogue, London, UK

Martin Amis has taken a theme from Cold War ideology and updated it for the modern age. He has extended the Stalin = Hitler axis back to Lenin and forwards to 21st century Islam. In addition, he has replaced the anachronistically sounding pseudo-scientific term “Totalitarianism” with a more mystical term that befits the contemporary era: “Death Cult”.

But, in his attempt to find an over-arching structure for today’s terrorism, Amis fails to examine an apparent paradox at the heart of recent terrorist attacks. On the one hand, terrorist attacks on the West seem to be informed much less by Islam and much more by self-loathing in Western society itself. On the other hand, most of the current crop of terrorists seem to be from a Muslim background. Why is this?

Even if Amis recognises this paradox, he would much rather invoke his mysterious Death Cult to explain things. As such, given the amount of space he has been given, Amis has missed an opportunity to examine modern day terrorism

Milton Crofts, Manchester,

While I did enjoy the article, I disagree with, "given the choice between George Bush and Osama bin Laden, the liberal relativist, it seems, is obliged to plump for the Saudi".. that's utter non-sense. There is a good portion of the world that believes that America's foreign policy is misguided and hegemonic however, that doesn't infer that we can't observe that the Islamists are more than a political movement at the same time... it's not a binary question, one or the other... some of us can walk and chew gum at the same time. Regards,

JamesT, Calgary, Canada

What does 'radical Islam' mean? Islam (an 'Arabic word) means 'peace through submission to God's will', as far as I understand.

Abdul Majeed, Bradford,

The majority of humans are only recently confronted with the weighty facts of our godless planet in a godless universe. The disillusionment has been universally painful and has only fully "sunk in" among a very small percentage of us. In fact, nearly two centuries on, many still deny this reality and reject the notion that we're all stuck in the same leaking rudderless boat. Muslims in particular, having thus far evaded the west's bloody reformations, are now outraged to find themselves "up shit's creek" with the rest of us, and are throwing a massive temper tantrum in protest, like hysterical red-faced toddlers dragged away from the playground by a traitorous mommy. We mustn't indulge them.

A. Olmeta, New York, NY

"9/11 and the cult of death"

Wrong 9/11 was an 'inside job', just google it.

"84% Say 9/11 Is A Cover Up"

stanzler, ny, usa

Dont forget Amis the west is not the solely a purveyor of reason and progress and enlightenment but also an enforcer of power and supremecy that have brought death and destruction to the rest of the world's population and plants and animals. The jehadist agenda's is driven by the deeds of the meglomanicas that insist on forcing their ideas upon peoples that have no love or understanding or kinship with these ideas. Some of us are capable of being repulsed by your thinking without wanting to blow things up

zain ul haq, manchester, UK

Well done, Martin! Excellent article. Very clear and analytical. You should stick to writing non-fiction.

Alessandro, London NW3,

Amis is saying what we have been trying to say for at least a year, unfortunately we are bound to politically correct rules, which means the full truth has to be concealed in politeness.
This only goes to make it a fudged message, I want to call a spade a spade.
It's only this week I have noticed the Times actually coming out & seeing the true situation.
The miserable cowering of our politicians on the C4 program & the Times findings in the Mosques, is as bad as the silence we get from the 2 million Muslims when an atrocity occurs.
However I am greatly heartened to see & hear at last , more articles & people talking about the growing concern, then what do we hear , Gordon Brown wants to fund MUSLIM MADRASSAS.

Maggie Millington, Brittany , France

what a brilliant article. seminal stuff

The widescale abdication of reason in society today is at the heart of the problem I think. Either the modern world is too complex or people are unwilling to make the effort to understand it. I think the western media is highly culpable in all this for it is they who have devalued and discredited everyone and everything - religion, science, politics, you name it, they will discredirt it for a few column inches

A prime example is the widespread belief that one can invade an Arab country and then steal oil that will take decades to extract. Think about it. This is a crertinous idea, yet a majority lap it up without a thought.

Another is that oil is running out when in fact conventional oil MAY be running out. Un conventional oil is abundant at prices well below todays. But this reality doesnt make good news

In my opinion the commoditisation of news is largely behind the groeing social dysfunction Amis so precisely identified

Mike Coulten, Newmarket, Cambs

A very intelligent, sane, and mature piece of writing, well-argued and beautifully written. The short shrift Amis gives to the moral equivalence line was especially necessary, given where the herding is leading.

John Bennett, London, England

Abbreviations like "9/11" may seem to trivialize a horrific event but I don't think that is the purpose. I know that many americans, (myself included) are still trying to define something that was so murdurously irrational that it defies catagorization. When we entered WWII "Pearl Harbor Day" came to symbolize and define who, and what we were fighting. The war with Japan was brutal and hard fought, but the enemy had a name, a country, and an easliy recognizable goal. We knew what we had to do to stop him. Perhaps with more insightful and educational aricles like this we may come to better understand this new enemy and his motives better, and thereby defeat this evil cult of death.

Joe Thornton, Warrenton VA, USA

Very skilfully expressed.

Tom, Los Angeles, CA, USA

What moderates do not seem to understand is that moderation will fall to fanaticism every time. Amis can see it, as can all people with a true love and devotion to liberal, Western principles. The idea that you can "understand"-away fantaticism is in itself the precursor to defeat. Right now, the US is the only Western nation that is standing up to Islam, and even then, it must walk a tightrope.

Soulcase, Baltimore, MD

Martin Amis is my favorite living author & reading his last column inspired me to re-read 'Money' - what a classic! 'London Fields' is also up there with the greats.

In terms Martin Amis's arguments in this column, I agree that at a certain point liberalism and militant Islam are irreconcilable - something they learnt in my mother country, the Netherlands, with the brutal killing of the film maker, Van Gogh.
I know which side I would root for every time - equal rights, freedom and rational discourse.

However the the lack of reason described by Amis works for both sides of the militant coin - Islam & Christianity.

How can the same christians seek to ban extremely valuable stem cell research by saying they care about the right to life whilst justifying sending troops to be slaughtered?

If a good cause is worth the death of a human beings then surely a good cause should justify death of a cell. Any leader that resorts to his faith without reference to reason is wrong.

Rudy E Parker, Cambridge, USA

A very interesting artical. Humans always try to work to be good enough for God, what ever the spur. Wheather to make up for Israel's victories or to be 'decent' and 'nice' enought to go to 'a better place' once we die we feel obliged to do good things so God will let us in to Heaven.

However, the Bible make it clear that we can never be good enough, what ever we do, especially if we think commiting evil against others which makes us further from God. This is because God's standards require perfection.

This is why God sent Jesus Christ, Hids own Son and a part of Himself, into the world. Jesus lived a perfect life and took our just punishment in our place on the cross so we could be made right with God. Only by trusting Jesus and what He has done for us can we be right with our Creator, God, and live to the full now and for eternity. Please take up this offer,

God bless,

Gareth Rhymes, Stoke-on-Trent, UK

Yep, there ain't no loon like a loon that's got religion is there. And that holds true whether it's your common or garden American-born-again-neocon, frothing at the lips about the abomination of Darwin or the sodomy of reason, or your exotic rabid-Mufti, barking about the blasphemy of, well everything basically. The confused-liberal-Adam shouldn't try and pretend these weeds in the Garden of Eden are really beautiful flowers but should quit sleeping on the job and pull them up and throw them on the bonfire before they spread and ruin the whole garden. Not just hang around waiting for god to clean the mess up.

Cirep G Nol, London,

Interesting point about 9/11 vs. 11/9. Just a pity that Thomas L. Friedman made it first, in "The world is flat."

Sebastian Turner, Toronto, Canada

May I? I really liked this article. Loads of words, names and events to look up on and a careful, shrewd and perfectly (should I say mind-boggling) logical reasoning.
I appreciate argumentative journalism that gives the reader credit by assuming we can follow the journalists thread of thought and that introduces me to information - new stuff, new angles.

The article gives me what I cannot find in the actions of the murderous fanatics described: Reason.

Elizabeth, FFM, Germany

As an American, I would just like to say that I have never heard anyone use the acronym "FWD" in place of "four-wheel drive." The latter is used in speech exclusively.

Brandon Righi, Earleville, Maryland, United States

It is very easy to complain about, attach labels to and put down others and others' philosophies and strategies.
What counts is the end result.
These 'cults of death' seem, so far, to result in dramatically higher population growth in the East and shrinking populations of the West which supposedly celebrates life.
Give it another century and the Christian world will be in serious trouble if we do not adapt and abandon selfish, ignorant, resource-draining lifestyles.

We think we know everything now that Communism is defeated, and that's exactly the problem.
The West will prove its moral and intellectual superiority over the East when it achieves two things: 1) once it finds a source of energy that is not dependant on present thievery and corruption of oil-producing nations, and 2) once the populations start to expand instead of contract.
Everything else is just empty words.

Winston, Rome, Italy

Amis is highly persuasive on the matter of fanatical Islamism: its morbid preoccupation with death and domination, its frightening negation of the merest shred of reason. The school for moral equivalence must omit murderous fanaticism and unyielding dogma from its considerations - particularly if it wishes to better serve the interests of the moderate majority of Muslims. Amis' Question Time response was perfectly sensible.
Still, I was less comfortable with his treatment of the Israel question. It is not valid to refer to so broadly to "Arab lands", as if they are all the same and peopled by a single homogenous tribe. No one would be satisfied to hear Europe dismissed - in the event, say, of an Saudi appropriation of Wales - as "Christian land." And while it is tempting to mock Islamists over the loss of the land now Israel, we should recall the large population of blameless and moderate Palestinians for whom the events of 1948 may very properly be described as 'catastrophic'.

Stephen Greenall, London,

Citing of Reason here is devoid of a key component: Objectivity, as Aristotle et al had it. So we have a subjective presentation, an Occupation of Reason, without merit. Take this section and note Objectivity would have applied the criteria to both sides of The Clash of Insanities:

"The exaltation of a godlike leader [Bush]; the demand [backed by military awe], not just for submission to the cause [Consumerism], but for utter transformation in its name; a self-pitying romanticism [Illusion of Freedom]; a hatred of liberal [non-Consumer] society, individualism, and affluent inertia (or Komfortismus)[oil rich Arab World]; an obsession with sacrifice and martyrdom; a morbid adolescent rebelliousness combined with a childish love of destruction [US militarism]; “agonism”, or the acceptance of permanent and unappeasable contention [Consumerism]; the use and invocation of the very new and the very old [Crusade x2]; a mania for purification [by war]; and a ferocious anti [Islam] Semitism."

J.P.Mascarenhas, London, England

>In the war between the US and Bin Laden taking sides is to legitimise both. Peace, freedom, democracy, liberty can not be imposed through war, force, dictatorship and good intentions.

Then to what, oh fool, do you attribute the present governmental arrangements in Germany, Italy and Japan?

Chris, Shetland,

Rather than being incontinent dribbling, as some two-bit wit opines, this offers a continent-sized drubbing to those who -- for either arcane or self-interested reasons -- have objectively speaking aligned themselves with Bin Laden or Islamism against the West (or Capitalism, or what have you). For Amis reminds us that vicious and cruel fanatics, whether they are Hitlerian or Leninist, Bin Ladenites or just screeching yobs, abhor reason. I don't mean capital-R reason, but small-r reason: giving reasons, arguments and rationalizations. You know, the stuff that makes civil society in liberal democracies what it is.

thor, Vancouver, Canada

To bananabrain: the most enlightened of religions Buddhism teaches that religion IS illusion, and this is far from an oversimplification. And why should religion not be concerned with mortality? It is surely a significant issue. In fact, the oldest religious traditions all testify that death and the dead were universally believed to be inseparable from life and the living.

rhonda, perth, australia

I am against hanging, does that proves I favour murders over the victims? In some peoples opinion I am afraid it does but should I accept their simplistic world view?

Amis seeks to narrow down our choices to either supporting America or Osama Bin Laden. He rejects any option of having a more complex perspective. In particularly by acknowledging the direct links between American policy and the rise of Isamic terrorism Amis demostrates the danger of his simplistic perspective. He tries to place this link in the past but it is clear that the interventions in both Iraq and Afganistan have increased radicalisation and strengthen militant Islamists.

In the war between the US and Bin Laden taking sides is to legitimise both. Peace, freedom, democracy, liberty can not be imposed through war, force, dictatorship and good intentions. Amis, Blair, Bin Laden & Bush may not like this reality but for how long can they keep denying experience?

John Moore, Bristol,

Yes, Question Time has become the expression of the UK's slide into Islamism. There is something very sad about David Dimbleby's journey around the UK's magnificant scenery, and his return to his native Sussex, the friendly greengrocer, the England as it was, and the Question Time audience.

What a great article - and beautifully written - some hope that a few in England, like Melanie Phillips and Ed Hussein, get it.

Still a long way to go, though, uphill...

David Williamson, Tucson, AZ USA

At least after Glasgow we can laugh at these clowns of paradise. What was funnier than the incompetence of the attack was the choice of target - where, more likely, will you get chinned for trying to ruin someone's holiday by blowing up check-in?

Brilliant and - has anyone else noticed? - very brave Mr Amis.

name witheld, ,

As I'm sure 1001 other people are about to point out, WWW is a British abbreviation coined by Tim Berners-Lee while working in Europe.

Max Christian, Seoul, Korea

Nice article. I found it via Reason.com's Hit and Run.

A couple of notes...
FWD is front wheel drive. Four wheel drive is 4WD, or 4x4 (four by four), and who says www anymore? Everyone just googles it.

Most of those abbreviations are creations of our ridiculous media. You know the ones that think coverage of celebrities constitutes news.

R Quinn, Tulsa, OK

an interesting article, apart from the nebulous numerological introduction but then:

"The rolling creed we call Islamism is also an embrace of illusion, as indeed is religion itself – a massive and multiform rearguard action, so to speak, against the fact of human mortality."

what a fatuous oversimplification. religion has plenty to say about things other than death and mortality. it weakens the argument and sticks me in the cage with bin laden and his ilk - yet i get my humanity and rationalism as much from religion as anything else.

b'shalom

bananabrain, london, uk

Incontinent dribbling.

john fletcher, shepton mallet, UK

Thank you for a well argumented article on an often cloudy topic. I don't agree with all your points, but you do offer some insightful reasoning.

Erik, The Hague, Netherlands

I gave up reading after three paragraphs of ridiculing American abbreviations.

Phill Barlow, Heswall, England

This is what really overwhelms me though: these fellow members of the human race did, do and will continue to carry out such heinous acts thinking all the while that they are pleasing God.

Osama Bin Laden, tell us, please! Which God?

martin bugeja, hal balzan, malta [europe]

The unfortunate problem with people like Martin Amis is how incredibly illiterate they are about subjects they feel they can propound on. A person who doesn't even know that the plural of fatwa is fatawa is unlikely to understand what that term may mean in the hundreds of different contexts it is used, and why fatawa became so important over the last hundred years when they formed a much less important part of the Islamic community for the previous thousand years and more.

On the whole, one agrees with the basic idea that moral equivalence should not be tolerated, and mass murder should be called just that. But any person half-learned about Islam will stop reading about half a paragraph into this piece because of its painful ignorance. If Amis is among the best that the West can put forth, it makes it that much more difficult for those of us who believe in certain universal themes to defend Western thoughts and achievements.

How sad that people feel they can write without reading.

Omair Ahmad, New Delhi, India