Almost

Submitted by C. J. Cheetham (United States), Aug 14, 2002 at 10:08

Mr. Pipes is almost right.

The real need is to treat Islam like we did communism. In other words oppose it everywhere, use the bully pulpit to denounce it, and defeat it militarly, politically, etc. Islam (like communism) WILL NOT change its horrific ways without Western pressure applied across the board.

Communism and Islam are equally anti-western, anti-capitalism, anti-freedom, anti-judeo/christian. So how did we "modernize" (to use Mr. Pipes words) communism? We defeated them! We should be funding freedom movenments in every Islamic country on the globe - arm the freedom movements to defeat these horrific governments. Then watch these totalitarian regimes collapse just as communism did.

Now communists are confined to political science and economic departments at our colleges and universities. Did communism modernize after defeat? I don't know - call it what you want, but it has ceased to threaten mankind. It would be wonderful if we could achieve the same result for Islamists.

As for who is and who isn't irredeemably evil, I say this: During the cold war, communists could live next door to you and they were of little threat. Thank God for our system, which forces communists to live under the rubric of a free nation. They are defanged. Likewise, Muslims live in America today, and thanks to our system of government, they cannot take away our freedom. However, look at the communist nations during the cold war: they were horrible places, filled with repression. The same applies to Islamic nations today - they are horrible places filled with repression. Defeat them. Don't hope they modernize, just defeat them.

---

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".