It is not the job of the US govenmrnent to deal with the ascendency of Islam

Submitted by Prashant (United States), Sep 21, 2012 at 02:08

Dear Dr Pipes,

the argument of the above reader might seem compelling but it is not the job of the US Government to deal with the ascendency of Islam. If Islamists become a national security threat then it is the job of the government to protect us. But if Islamists cause higher population growth rate, destruction of poverty, violence among themselves, Islamic ethnocentrism, illiteracy, worldwide cry-baby behavior, misguided religious supremacy, loss of productivity etc, then it is the job of the authors, philosophers, political scientists, sociologists and common people like me and you to oppose Islamism.

The fact is that Islamic law, islamic military, and political, and social policies hide under the protection that we usually grant to religions. That must stop. When I criticize sharia, I am criticizing a legal system. I am not criticizing a religion. When I criticize burqa, I am criticising a social practice. I am not criticizing God or Allah. When I criticize the fact that 1.2 billion Muslims are bullying a few million jews of the world, I am criticizing a military policy and not the religion.

Once again it is not the governments of the world that are failing in standing up to Islam; it is the people of the world. And it is in this context our salute must go to Salman Rushdie who as recently as this week reiterated his opinion that questioning dogma is a human right.

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