What a waste of time

Submitted by Michel C. Zala (Switzerland), Jul 12, 2011 at 08:59

Your debate with Dhimmi digressed and devolved into the subject matter of who speaks Arabic. Bravo.

As seen with pretty much every single Muslim I ever debated, it usually ends in personal insults and emotional bull, because their arguments run dry. As seen in every single kindergarten, once one's points or facts run out, one resorts to personal insults.

By avoiding my facts, yet exchanging insults and thus wasting mine and any reader's time, you clearly declare intellectual defeat.

What is especially gruesome and almost tragic is, that during all my years here with at times heated debates, I never ever found one single muslim, who was able to frame his point of view logically, compelling, stringent, appropriate, articulate and foremost polite and respectful. Even from my admittedly limited viewpoint this represents a clear pattern. Whenever their arguments were refuted, whenever their facts did not stand the test of history, almost all of the debates ended in the very same ugly manner with an exchange of insults.

Our society in the West (Europe and USA I know indepth) is full of people with a strong sense of introspective, fully aware of terrible mistakes, heck crimes committed in the past. Our own religious zealots are ostracised and called out brutally in the media and public. Our Churches, such as for instance the Catholic Church, is oftentimes harshly critizised.

Muslim nations, especially of the middle eastern kind, seem to have remained in a medieval state, where, as it was in Europe at that time, only the clergy filters down the info, interpretes it, digests it and thus controls hearts and minds of the people. Critique in quasi inexistent. Incongrualities in the Quran can not be discussed, let alone doubted. The willingness of many westerners to question their religion and clergy, is considered among muslims as a weakness. Fanaticism is being celebrated as strength, which explains why nowadays pretty much all terror in the world is being committed by muslim fanatics in the name of Allah. What is especially appalling to me is, that muslim terror kills even more muslims than infidels. Can you point me to a place in the Quran, where Allah or Mohammed condones the killing of brethren, innocent women and children, all muslims? Is there a place at all, justifying any killing of innocent bystanders, no matter the religion?

If there is, then we should also wipe our butts with this book, as it seemingly is okay for muslims to do so with the Bible. If there isn't, there is something fundamentally wrong with your religious organisations, culture and clergy. Either way, the facts are obvious, where thousands and tousands of innocent people are being killed every year in the name of Allah. From Darfur to Malaysia more people die than during any of the outright wars at present. During the last 20 years, the total amount of victims of terror in thename of Allah has reached staggering numbers, exceeding even most real wars and approaching the amount of the last terrible great war (Vietnam).

Where is the muslim, willing to acknowledge this sad fact? Where is the dissent, the debate, the introspection within the muslim world? Hell, I am not even talking about real change and or peace. I am talking about one pre-requisite to it, an outspoken faction of moderate muslims, willing to confront their own fanatics forcefully.

Instead of arguing about Arabic grammar, dear Riaz, "Sonny", how about answering these questions?

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".