Optimism vs. the Paramount Issue

Submitted by Prof. Paul Eidelberg (Israel), Mar 2, 2011 at 03:45

Dr. Pipes' optimism regarding the Egyptian revolution is paradoxical when contrasted with what he has written about the hatred of Jews and Israel that pervades Egyptian society.

His newly formed optimism about Egyptians also clashes with what he has written about the Palestinians. Referring to the latter, he has pointed out that it would take at least two generations to civilize a society that has educated a generation of children to hate Jews and emulate homicide bombers. Yet he maintains that democracy is compatible with Islam!

This optimism conforms to his optimism regarding "Muslim moderates." Such optimism is not only "politically correct"; it is dangerous. It is psychologically disarming to speak of "Muslim moderates," for they are nowhere near leading Islam's war against the West. What is most distinctive and strategically significant about Islam—as can be gleaned from the assessments of Alexis de Tocqueville and Winston Churchill—is that it is culture of hate and of war. The overwhelming fact is that murder, pillage, rape, and more murder are in the Quran and in the Hadith or Islamic Traditions. "Kill, kill the unbelievers wherever you find them." This is an unending formula for war. It underlies a report of the Center for the Study of Political Islam, according to which Muslims have slaughtered some 270 million people since Muhammad! (See FrontPageMagazine, February 21, 2007,)

Hence, talk about "Muslim moderates" is academic and distracts us from the most crucial issue. The paramont issue of our time is the nature of Islam whose adherents, animated by their "we love death mantra," are gaining control of Europe and making significant inroads in America.

Finally, it needs to be emphasized that the conflict between Islam and the West is fundamentally a theological conflict, a conflict involving the essence of man and the meaning of history. This conflict goes beyond the political and economic and territorial parameters or puerilities of America's and Israel's ruling elites. These predominantly secular elites—politicians and judges, academics and journalists—should read former Director of Voice of America Robert R. Reilly, whose book, The Closing of the Muslim Mind, may open their own minds to the true nature of the conflict between Judea-Christian civilization and Islam.

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