Ravi Shankar, understanding Dr.Pipes

Submitted by Infidel (Canada), Jun 20, 2008 at 01:30

I agree with your words regarding Islam, but disagree with your remarks in reference to Dr. Pipes. If I'm not mistaken, Dr. Pipes spent, perhaps 3 years studying Islam in Egypt. Therefore, I believe that he is an expert in understanding Islam. There are indeed, "moderate" Muslims.

What if there are 1 million moderate Muslims in the world? Would he not be correct in referring to them as "moderates?" There are, in fact Muslims in the world who do not study the Qur'an, do not attend Mosques on a regular basis and probably know less about Islam than some of us. Thus Dr.Pipes' reference to "moderate Muslims", does not make him as someone "clinging to the false assumption that there are 'radical' and 'moderate' Muslims". In fact, there are a small number of "moderate" Muslims in the world.

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".