A Missing Word?

Submitted by Ron Thompson (United States), May 13, 2008 at 14:33

This is a great article for needed perspective, but it seems a bit odd to talk about "toxic politics" and "autocracy, radicalism, and violence" without once mentioning the word ISLAM. Is this the elephant in the room that nobody can confront?

I recently asked an ABC news reporter out selling her book about her experiences in Iraq, 'Do you think Muslims are deranged into all this violence by their religion?' She deflected rather than rejected the question, but without any indignation, for which I respected her.

I wonder if eventually, in another 60 years or so, the West will consider that it's impossible to defeat Islamic violence without taking on violence in-its-name directly, which is to say, confronting the religion itself as incapable of non-violence because of what is, and what is not, in its most basic tenets?

In the meantime, I guess Israel, even more than the rest of us, will have to live with the existential threat posed by Islam, made more serious because we can't call our enemy by its truest name.

Ron Thompson

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