1. Moslems have a sacred principle: Moslem minorities have a right to secede from their states, but non-Moslem minorities have no such right. The West foolishly accepted this notion for several decades. It should reconsider and take some long overdue action — in Lebanon, Indonesia, Sudan and Nigeria, to give the most obvious examples.

2. Nigeria is an excellent example of the political dangers Islam poses to unbelievers. It has a Muslim majority concentrated in the North of the country and a large Christian minority concentrated in the South. Its post-independence rulers were overwhelmingly Moslem, tyrannical and corrupt. They used Nigeria's oil resources (situated mainly in Christian areas) to enrich themselves and their cliques. When oil-rich Christian Biafra tried to break away, the attempt was ruthlessly suppressed by force. Nigeria's current President, Olesugon Obasanjo, is a Christian. Shortly after he was elected, religious riots broke out with Moslems attacking Christians. More than 6,000 people died. The riots continue despite Obasanjo's attempts to end them peacefully — perhaps because the Nigerian Army is largely Moslem and has no interest in suppressing them. If Obasanjo and the Christian population do not come to realize that their only viable political goal is secession or do not succeed in promoting this cause in the international forum while they still can, they will find themselves living the life of second-class citizens in a Moslem state.

3. Osama Bin Laden's September 2001 attack on the United States may yet prove the salvation of the Christian world. It has turned attention to the network of Islamic (especially Wahhabi) mosques and subversive cells promoted mainly by generous funding from Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. Bin Laden funded only a small part of them. The awareness of the instability created by the preaching of Wahhabism in Africa, Asia and other continents is still clouded by unwillingness to believe its expansionary goals, but the intelligence gathering generated by the 11 September 2001 attack in the West and Russia may bring these to light, hopefully in time to prevent a Moslem takeover of Africa.

4. Israel's discovery of the military connection between the Palestinian Authority and Iran has put a different complexion on the West's attitude to Arafat. But the PLO was and remains an anti-Western terrorist movement. It will remain one after Arafat goes too — a point Western chancelleries would do well to note.