Muzammil needs to be corrected

Submitted by Prashant (United States), May 11, 2011 at 00:25

Dear Dr Pipes:

Though earnest, your reader Muzammil needs to be corrected on many counts. First, he says that we should not judge Islam based on the actions of a few (Muzammil calls these people illiterate). Muzammil cannot be more wrong. Illiteracy has nothing to do with barbarism. The world is full of illiterate people and not all of them are wantonly blasting bombs and killing people all around them. As far as I know Osama bin Laden was a highly qualified and trained engineer. Further, Muzammil says that we should not criticize Islam unless we study it deeply. I disagree, I don't need to be a theologist to make an opinion on Islam. It is perfectly ok to criticize Islam if a lot of actions by many Muslims do not stand to well accepted standards of ethics, reason, and mutual respect.

The problem is that there are many poor and illiterate muslims. The problem is that those muslims who are neither poor nor illiterate are derelict in duty.

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