The silence of "moderates"

Submitted by Dr Joshua Lamm (United States), Aug 16, 2002 at 08:41

Dear Dr Pipes,

I'm an avid and appreciative redaer of all of your writtings.
If, as you say, there is a rational non-militant Islam contingent in the West that rejects the militants..why are they so invisible? Those who publicly reject militant Islam all seem to be low or mid-level clergy or thinkers. Where are the prominent upper tier who command respect and have global reach, who express the same sentiments? When they are interviewed they invarviably hedge and hem and haw but will be not be clear that Militant Islam is evil etc...

In my younger years, when Meir Kahane walked the earth, many of us hesitated not one second to publically condemn him. Why the reluctance on the part of these Moslems to do the same? We demonstrated againt Kahane. Are you aware of ANY Moslem groups doing the same? If no...why not?
Thanks for your attention.

Joshua Lamm MD

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