There is no such thing as Islamic land

Submitted by ted (United States), Jun 25, 2010 at 03:54

Dear Dr Pipes: If you are told the same thing over and over again, you come to believe it as the ultimate truth. I think the same is true about Islamist's misgiving that there is anything like the 'Islamic land'. Some muslims have come to believe that any piece of land once occupied by a muslim army or war lord becomes Islamic for good. This is an absurd belief for many reasons. The people, the lands, the living beings, the animals, none of these things are born muslim. Anything that bears the Islamic tag (or any other tag for that matter) does so because of the beliefs of the current owners of that thing. Once the owners change or the owners change their beliefs, the thing ceases to bear the tag. These terrorists should stop using the phrase 'Islamic land'. US occupation of various countries is not any more or less bad than the Islamic conquests of non-Islamic lands thorughout the history. The budding Faisal Shahzad should be told this thing.

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".