Most of us are familiar with the idea of Sudden Jihad Syndrome (SJS), whereby seemingly average Muslims suddenly engage in acts of violence, but yet have no established terrorism links. They are not Al-Qaeda operatives. They are individuals who are exposed to the Islamist ideology, and with makeshift arms engage in Jihad. As was the case with the Fort Dix Six, not all terrorists have filled out an official Al Qaeda Application like Jose Padilla. They are nevertheless committed to a violent ideology, and utilize knowledge and methodologies easily accessible via the internet to undertake Jihad. As I understand, SJS has come about largely in response to successful western efforts to decapitate and isolate terrorist leadership, so that even without effective command and control, the Jihad keeps rolling on. Where there is a will… as the saying goes.

I was at a meeting of an anti-islamist group this week. I was struck by how clearly the issue is understood. Authors like Spencer, Pipes, Phares and Ali are getting the message out there; blogs like GOV, Jihad Watch, and LGF are successful at keeping us informed. Many of us understand the threat, and the situation we face. But so many of us are left asking, as one woman the other day asked me (paraphrasing), “What do we do? I want to do something.”

The problem of course is that we don’t know what to do. No one has ever run a counter-jihad before. We are all amateurs at this. We wish that we had some kind of western version of Sheik Khalid Mohammad to set up and plan our operations, and give us our marching orders, but there isn’t one.

But we do have the same tools available to us that the opposition does. We have an ideology - liberty and freedom and the rule of law.  These are positive western values which should be promoted; violent Islamist totalitarianism is an evil which must be opposed. As a counter-jihad group our focus must be on creating methods which interested people can use to wage counter-jihad. Instead of diagrams for pipe bombs like Al-Qaeda, we need to provide information on how to organize a demonstration. What essential items are needed: permits, sound systems, portable bathrooms. Email lists for legislative contacts and grassroots lobbying. All the items to help answer the question, “what do we do?”

It only takes one person to put a burqa on the statue of a mermaid, attend and record audio a CAIR meeting, or to take some action which dramatically expresses our concerns and our insistence that we will not be cowed into submission by PC rhetoric, hate speech legislation, or threats of violence.  It only takes one person overcome with Sudden Counter-Jihad Syndrome. And when the forces of Islamism overreact, as we know they will, we win more converts to our position, as more people realize that they do not need anyone’s permission or approval to say what they think.

Of course Sudden Counter-Jihad Syndrome won’t solve the problem of global jihad and the spread of sharia law for us, but it may prove a useful model as those of us concerned about the problem search for a way to turn that concern from mere worry into effective action. And through networks between groups like the folks I met the other day, and Vigilant Freedom, and our European, Israeli, Thai, Australian, South Asian and Middle Eastern allies, we can learn what approaches work and which don’t. Through those learned experiences we can begin to develop our methodologies and share them, and thus take the next step from one individual’s Sudden Counter-Jihad, to organized, mass counter-jihad.