For many years, radical Islam has been a major talking point amongst politicians, the media, and the general public.  Many controversial topics have been brought up and argued regarding this religion and the intent of not only the radicals but also the everyday followers of this religion stuck in the 5th century.  The question is whether or not the religion, and the radicals themselves, are a current threat to the western world or not.  How Islam could be a threat to the United States and other western countries is an incredibly controversial question and even those that agree that it is a threat do not necessarily agree and how or why it is a threat.  This research question is so interesting because not only does it come with much controversy but also is very important for the citizens who live in the westernized countries which would be targeted by the radicals.  The question also calls into effect a person's values about viewing all people of all religions as equals.  As much as some people would like to claim that most Muslims are extreme or radical, this is simply not the case.  In fact, 95% of Muslims are not radicalized while only 5% claim to be radical.  The scary truth about this statement means 5% of 1.6 billion Muslims means that there are roughly 75 million radical Islamists who seek the destruction of America and the western world. 

The central claim of this article is the title of the article itself, "Yes, Radical Islam Is a serious threat to America. " Although the author is somewhat light on the details and specifics of why or how this is the case, he does provide direct examples of people who let it rise to become such a major problem and what we as a nation must do to make sure that it does not get the better of us.  The author, a prominent member of the Republican party, directly goes after and attacks the leaders of the Democratic Party and blames them and their beliefs for the reason that this problem of radical Islam has become so prevalent.  It is very much expected that the main interest of the author in writing this article was to attack and prove liberals wrong all while promoting the ideals and beliefs of the conservatives.   The author Bobby Jindal, Governor of Lousianna, is very credible on the topic being he is a respected and high ranking politician.  However, there is no doubt that he is heavily biased based upon his affiliation with the conservative party. 


This article delves into the beginnings and origins of one of the most successful terrorist organizations in modern history, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, otherwise known as ISIS.  The article breaks down and analyzes all of the different components and complications that are going on in that region of the world.  There are so many different groups of people and organizations that are fighting a war over there and of course they are all fighting for different reasons.  The article is mostly informational with the author being a renowned expert in the subject field.  Graeme Wood, in addition to being a contributing editor and author of The Atlantic and The New Republic, is the Edward R. Murrow Press Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.  He also is a lecturer at Yale University in the subject of political science. He has had numerous appearances on the news networks of CNN and MSNBC which tends to make it a fair assumption that his bias will lean to the left.


The author of this article presents his views on new ways of combatting the spread of radical Islam.  One of the major claims of his article which is potentially highly controversial is that the ways in which students are being taught  about religions, especially Islam, need to change in order to combat the draw that radical Islam has to those who go out searching to join it.  The author uses a couple of reports put together by numerous governments that support his claims however he does get all that specific.  The author, Michael Curtis, is a professor Emeritus at Rutgers University and has published over 30 books.  Also, in 2014 he was awarded the French Legion d'Honneur.   Being a highly credible source, it can be determined that the author is certainly qualified to write on the subject matter. 

The research question is a highly controversial subject amongst politicians and everyday citizens of the western world alike.  One can argue that radical Islam is not at all a threat or one could agree that it is a threat however the how and why a person believes it is a threat could vary.  All three of these sources presents different views on the same topic and they all present evidence in different ways.  The effect this had on my own personal opinion regarding the subject was that there are so many arguments that the one must be able to rule out what is a reasonable argument and what is an argument that it is just totally unrealistic.  Also, when researching and finding sources for an article that is so controversial and talked about so much, the majority of the sources will be heavily biased.  As all three of these sources carry some bias with in them, I think they do a good job on focusing on facts rather than opinion. 
