A specia message for Mr Pipes.

Submitted by Michael (Egypt), Oct 23, 2010 at 06:29

Mr Pipes,

I'm sure you review the comments on your articles regularly, so I hope you recognize me; I've been commenting on your insightful articles for a while. My name is Michael, and I'm Coptic, and a psychiatrist by the way.

Though I must admit, Mr Pipes, that your knowledge about Islam really astonishes me, yet I plead with you to revise your conviction that the West is at war with the so-called "Radical Islam" not Islam itself, and that "Moderate Islam" is the solution.

Can I ask you a question, Mr Pipes? Who is the moderate Moslem? How can you tell a moderate Moslem? I've been living in the Moslem World for decades now and I can assure you—I can attest—that there is no Moderate Islam nor moderate Moslems (even from the hypothetical point of view). What you mean, I reckon, is that there are committed Moslems (Moslems who pray 5 times a day, fast Ramadan, read the Quran and Hadith, and set Muhammad as their paragon) and non-committed Moslems: Moslems who—in short—don't care about religious life in general, even though they would pray once a day or sporadically read some verses from their religious books. This is "normal variation", I'm sure you are aware of that.

Were there not soldiers, during Nazi Germany, who fought among the Nazi legions reluctantly? That did not deter the West from standing up to Nazism as a whole. Japan attacked the U.S. in Peal Harbor. Not all Japanese were devils, not all of them were even hawkish: normal variation. Still, America blew up Hiroshima and Nagasaki and killed 250,000 Japanese without a scruple.

What is new here with Islam? Why make excuses and evade the blatant truth? Why not call things by its names and take a decent action before it's too late?

Can you please answer me, Mr Pipes? I would be much obliged.

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