Law & Jihad with Andrew McCarthy
Filmed on June 02, 2008

Andrew McCarthy is a former assistant U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York. He led the 1995 terrorism prosecution of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and 11 others, all of whom are now serving long sentences for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Now a senior fellow for the Foundation of the Defense of Democracies and a contributing editor of National Review Online, McCarthy is the author of Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad.

“It is crucial to grasp … [the] Islamic notion of freedom, for it is the inverse of the Western conception.” From this central idea, McCarthy discusses the “chasm between the Islam of Western fantasy and the Islam that actually exists,” underscoring the fact that “jihadists are very adept at exploiting the freedoms that are available to them in Western democracies.”

Confronting Islamic extremism, how do we make our strategic behavior -- the rules of war – conform to the rule of law that is essential in maintaining a free society? (33:27) Video transcript

Guests:

• Andrew McCarthy Andrew McCarthy is a former assistant U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York. He led the 1995 terrorism prosecution of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and 11 others, all of whom are now serving long sentences for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Now a senior fellow for the Foundation of the Defense of Democracies and a contributing editor of National Review Online, McCarthy is the author of Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad.