Lack of freedom of speech is the main cause of problems in the Islamic societies.

Submitted by Kurt Basking (United States), Feb 5, 2010 at 01:25

Dear Dr Pipes:

No one can deny that the Muslim cultures in today's world are more in trouble than any other culture. Islamists are involved in violent fights with every non-muslim culture and every non-muslim nation. To make the matters worse, when Islamists are not fighting with non-muslims they are fighting and destroying eachother. And what is true today has been true throughout the Islamic history.

I believe that lack of freedom of speech and excess of coercion is what makes Islamic societies what they are. A coercive force on one part of the society at one time may cause an explosion in some other part of the society at some other time. So if you force women to dress a certain way in one village today -- even if there is no direct relation -- it may cause a suicide bombing to occur ten years later in a distant village. This happens because coercion destroys the spirits of the people and kills their creativity and sense of well being. When the sense of well being is lost, bad things start happening.

Muslims should realize that coercion even for a good cause is not good.

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