"Honesty?" Honestly!

Submitted by Alan Nitikman (United States), Mar 8, 2005 at 20:49

Dear Dr. Pipes,
You describe Islamist candidates as having "the honesty to appeal to voters." If what you mean is "consistency," or the willingness to explicitly present their convictions, then, yes, they are "honest." By this measure, Mafiosi are "honest" because, when they threaten your life, they mean it. If you define "honesty" as a commitment to objectivity, to reality, which is a broader, more accurate definition, then there is nothing honest about a group that punishes any point of view, however correct, that contradicts their interpretation of an ancient text. They have denied science and technology for hundreds of years now, only appropriating it second-hand. In the U.S., many fundamentalist may hold such views, but they can't impose their values on the rest of us because of the guarantees of our constitution and the fundamental separation of church and state. Islamists will tolerate no such separation, tolerance means dhimmi subjugation and law means Shari'a. So "honesty" is not something I would associate with such views.

Regards,
Alan Nitikman

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