Mr. Pipes: ...

Submitted by john w. mcginley (United States), Mar 10, 2014 at 09:55

First of all let it be stipulated that Islamic regimes -- be they Sunni or Shia --- which proclaim Jews to be pigs and who constantly lobby for the destruction of the Nation Israel must be countered in every way including military force if necessary. Period. That being stipulated, Mr. Pipes, I believe that this posting of yours lacks nuance and historical context. Start by reading the TORAH (i.e., the first five books of Jewish Scripture), To be sure it is the Book of books and I for one maintain that the primary Guidance for Human behavior is contained in those five books. And Yet. Read it carefully and you will find madates in the TORAH -- which were literally followed at one time in Judaism's history -- which are atrocious. Even the Heredi wing of Judaism does not follow in practice all the stipulations mandated in the Torah.

The point I am trying to get across is that Islam is a relatively young religion. It is roughly two and a half milennia (sp?) younger than the origins of Judaism and roughly a millennium and a half form the time when most of the TORAH came to be put in writing.///////As with what came to be with Judaism (i.e., JudaismS), Islam --- for better or for worse -- de facto is constituted by a range "IslamS." Primary Revelation from God is through and by the Jewish People and Its sacred writings. In and case I sense that there is an important Revelation in the Quran for all of us. Let Islam Itself figure out its own peace with the mandates of their Revelation and the realities of actual living.

If the Muslims are smart they will imitate the Jewish way of honoring its Primary Scripture and at the same time living in the real world. In the meantime Countries who are threatened by Islam must keep their powder dry. There really is great wisdeom in the madate from the TORAH: "An eye for and eye and a tooth for a tooth." It is also true that Isaac and Ishmael must be reconciled.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".