We all are hostages of Islamism

Submitted by Prashant (United States), Apr 20, 2012 at 02:59

Dear Dr Pipes:

Thanks for writing the New Your Post editorial exposing the textbook "Across the Century". Islamists --in every free country of the world-- take full freedom of the available liberties to incessantly advertise their product (Islam) and in that sense we all are hostages of Islam. Consider the case of America. Most of the Christians, Jews, Hindus and Budhdists living in America do not carry their religions on their sleeves. If we come from a foreign country, we argue for and against that country. Similarly we argue for and against the policies of the US government. Very seldom religion is brought into discussion and most discussions about religion occur at a philosophical level. But Islam offers no such courtesies to anyone. Be it dressing differently from everyone else, or bringing Islamic perspectives to secular issues (e.g. finance), or asking for special facilities in public places, or discussing Islam when it does not need to be discussed, Muslims have stolen the agenda.

I will quote a sentence from your editorial. It says, "in the multicultural spirit, about half of its eight sections are devoted to the West, and the other four deal with Islam, Africa, Asian empires, and pre-Columbian". Am I the only one who sees anything wrong in this sentence? Every other culture listed in the sentence has been listed in a non-religious fashion but Islamic culture is listed with the world Islam. Even in a sentence as simple as this, Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism could not steal the agenda but Islam did.

Things are a lot better in America. In other democratic countries, Islam has truly made lives of non-Muslims difficult. In almost every city and village in India, you can hear Islamic prayers recited on loudspeakers five time a day, 365 days a year. Most Indian children -- muslims or otherwise -- wake up to the sound of a loudspeaker rattling in their ears at odd hours of the morning (sometimes even before the dogs start to bark). I have heard street corners being appropriated by Muslims in France for friday prayers. That might be a rarity in the west but that is the norm in India for decades. Social courtesies and good citizenship is never an issue for the Islamists.

We all like to have street fairs every now and then. We like it if churches and synagogues occasionally have bake-sales on the street. We love to see nativity decorations in street corners sometimes. But if a group of people chooses our liberties to thrust their way of living on us fives times a day, we have no choice.

Unless Islamist's Islam becomes unviable under its own burdens (and it will certainly become so), non-muslims should do everything possible to stop Islamist from stealing the agenda. Every time vocal Islamic doctrine invalidates other faiths, we need to speak. Every time Islamists blur the difference between culture and religion, we need to protest. Every time Islamists exploit the libertes that we offer in our societies to their selfish gains, we need to object. Every time, Islamists steal a text book, we need to highlight. So thank you for the New York post editorial.

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