Very interesting interview with an Islamic expert, Saad Al-Faqih on Al-Qaeda here (HT John Robb).

I’m not persuaded that America is as week as Faqih believes. I agree that it is about to suffer a severe setback, but I think that what will happen is that the underlying strength and resilience of US culture will then emerge out of the crucible. In contrast to Faqih I think the long term comparison of cultural strength favours the US. It is Islam that faces a true existential crisis.