Pipes: A Voice of Reason

Submitted by Trey Wickwire (United States), Jul 30, 2002 at 08:16

Mr. Pipes,

I have been reading your articles for a long time now and I just wanted to say that you are possibly the only American writer who truly understands Islam. I am an American, but from age 10 thru 16 I lived in the Mid-East. My father worked for a large Engineering, Procurement and Construction Company and the entire family followed him to countries such as Algeria, Abu Dhabi in the Emirates and Saudi Arabia. I now work for the same EPC Company and have worked overseas in the Central Asian country of Kazakhstan where a very liberal version of Islam is practiced right along side the more conservative variety.

While in Kazakhstan I worked very closely with a large number of Turks. This was my first experience with the Turks and I found it to be very enlightening. They are a very passionate people almost resembling the Latins in that respect. While they have a way to go in many areas such as human rights they are still an impressive example of how Islam can join the modern world. Another fifty years or less and they may well pass us by.

The one thing my travels have shown me is that Islam has as much variety, flexibility and potential as Christianity does. I consider myself a Christian but see no problem in believing that Mohammed is a prophet of God sent to earth for the Muslims. Islam believes that Christ was a prophet of God...

Thank you very much for being a voice of reason amongst the cries of hate and destruction.

Trey

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