Peter Hall is right but I have one fear

Submitted by Prashant (United States), Jan 7, 2012 at 21:02

Dear Dr Pipes,

Peter Hall presents a thesis with which I completely agree. He said that fundamentalist Islam has more to fear from freedom and the west than the other way round. I agree completely with just one fear. It is quite possible that Muslims will live a pretty unislamic life for the most part (wine, freedom, fashion burqas, opportunistic hijabs etc) but become very Islamic when winning political is involved. Islam hides a political force under the garb of a religion. One example of this situation is seen in the founder of Pakistan Muhammad Ali Jinnah. J

Innah was a very unislamic person who had little to do with Islam the religion but he ended up becoming the father of Islamic Pakistan. Most leaders of today's Islamic nations have very little to do with Islam but Islam is still a rallying cry. True test of Peter Hall's thesis will come when (say) in the year 2035 Islamists demand a separate country in northern Australia where by that time the influence of Islamic Indonesia may be significant. WIll the moderate/modern muslims who grew up in Australia stand with Australia or with Australistan?

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