Moderate Muslims

Submitted by Gloria Stewart (United States), Sep 13, 2010 at 19:46

Dr. Pipes deserves the thanks of the civilized world for being among the first scholars to issue a warning about Islam and to teach Islam to the public. At first it must have been a lonely battle. However, I must respectfully disagree with his insistence that Islam has a moderate form. There may be moderate Muslims, but there is no moderate Islam.

Mosab Yousef, the son of the founder of Hamas and a convert to evangelical Christianity, said it best. He described Islam as a ladder. When one is on the bottom step, one may be moderate because one has not looked up to the end. But the ladder only goes one way, and, when one reaches the top, there is only violent jihad.

Dr. Pipes asks us to distinguish between the Islamic faith and Islam as a political movement. I would love to, but the Prophet Mohammed would not permit it. It is he who made the mosque the center of political activity. He was a preacher, a political activist, a judge and a military man. He made Islam a total way of life, a creed like Naziism and Communism. To Muslims he is the perfect man, and the Koran is the literal word of God. Where does Dr. Pipes find room for reform?

Dr. Pipes knows moderate Muslims. Perhaps he should ask himself the following questions: Are they moderate because they have run out of ammunition? Are they one sermon away from being radicalized? Are they practicing taqqiya?

GLoria Stewart

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