Discussion of Islamic Terrorism, Islamism or just Islam

Submitted by Prashant (United States), Jun 5, 2015 at 02:50

Dear Dr Pipes,

I understand what terrorism is. I also understand what Islam is. I have difficulty in understanding waht Islamism is. Probably deep ethnocentrism that goes with Islam is an example of Islamism. In any case, I do not think they are unrelated to each other and I think that free discussion of all three Islamic terrorism, islamism, and plain Islam is a necessicity of our times. Unfortunately due to extreme intolerance in the Islamic societies toward intellectual discussions on Islam, we have come to believe that Islam is beyond reproach (for example, we do not even question the fact that a non-muslim cannot even enter Mecca let alone preaching his religion in Mecca. There are tens of other such examples).

Luckily the good old days when a Salman Rushdie could be silenced by just issuing a fatwa against him are long gone. Now every human being is a TV station capable of broadcasting news to the entire world. Issuing and executing fatwas against everyone who expresses his opinion will be impractical and prohibitively expensive now. So, dear all, let a free minded debate on all aspects of Islam begin.

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".