I admire optimism but...

Submitted by Doug Mayfield (United States), Mar 30, 2014 at 12:35

I always look forward to Mr. Pipes' columns which I find insightful and valuable but this time I must virulently disagree with him and side with Mr. Ibrahim. There is no possibility of moderate Islam.

The problem is that the history of all thoroughly malevolent authoritarian movements, and Islam is one of the worst, is utterly against Mr. Pipes' position.

Nazi-ism, Communism, Fascism. There were those who took these evil ideologies entirely seriously and therefore rose through the ranks to become leaders of those movements, that is, become cheap vicious murdering tyrants. That in turn led to the slaughter of hundreds of millions of innocent people. And there were those who simply followed along.

There were no 'moderate Nazis', no 'moderate Communists'. Hitler and Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao, saw to it that any 'moderates' were purged, jailed, and eventually murdered.

The only thing which stopped these systems was absolutely resolute opposition from the West, including in the former case, at enormous cost, fighting a world war, and in the latter case, unflinching opposition including building an unassailable military establishment.

Suppose a moderate follower of Islam raised his or her voice. Fatwa, vicious assault, almost certainly murder, would all follow immediately. The bearded tyrannical scum running Islam have proven this beyond any reasonable doubt again and again and again.

Unless challenged without hesitation and without fear, evil ideologies, and as a belief system, Islam is thoroughly evil, lead directly to savagery and death. To hope for moderate Islam is without any basis in reality and, in my view, will only result in more people being murdered.

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