Goose and gander

Submitted by K.H. Ahmed (United States), Apr 4, 2008 at 10:31

In one sense it is unusual for me to not disagree with Mr. Pipes on issues relating to Islam and the Middle East... However, I have to agree that Europe needs to resist a tendency to subvert its own values and beliefs in order to assimilate a growing Muslim population. Yet if we recognize this need on the part of Europeans, then why is it we have such a difficult time recognizing the Middle Easts struggle to retain its own cultural values and beliefs.

Mr. Pipes and others see no problem with evangelicals trying to turn the world upside down for the people of the Middle East - It is the old bugaboo of Western values being preferred to eastern values. Until we start recognizing what is good for the goose is also good for the gander - the struggle between the West and the Middle East will continue - This looking down our noses at the values of others can lead us no where other than distrust and conflict.

Mr. Pipes knows as well as anyone that the issues confronting the Middle East go far beyond Islam or even radical Islam. The conflicts of culture between the Turks, the Persians, the Arabs, the Kurds, the Jews are as old as the Middle East. This continuous simplification by suppossed experts ... and members of the current administration will continue to lead us into conflict until such time as we recognize the true fundamental fault lines and problems of the Middle East, many of them I might add, are problems of our own making.

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