Greatly appreciated

Submitted by K.H. Ahmed (United States), May 26, 2008 at 07:51

Dr. Pipes,

I would like to thank you for taking the time to continue the dialogue and for your clarification. You state, "all children born with an Arabic name based on the trilateral root H-S-N can be assumed to be Muslim." You state in the last paragraph that perhaps you should have stated it was possible for one to convert out of Islam and that the name was indicative of his born religion not his current one.

I agree to the fact that the first part of your statement is true based upon the root the name is Muslim - however the assumption would be the individual was of Muslim lineage but not necessarily a Muslim. As to the construction of being "born" to a religion, perhaps an argument for another day. I don't wish to wear out my welcome.

However, you have clarified to the point that while I may not agree I understand what your reasoning is on the passage in question. I hope that your readers on the site have followed our little discussion and will realize that some of the opprobrious polemics that take place on this site can evolve into something more appropriately related to the effort you place into your articles.

Sincerely,

K. Ahmed

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".