WILL THE REAL..UH..TERRORISTS PLEASE...

Submitted by Tom Pembroke (Saudi Arabia), Sep 7, 2002 at 01:40

Most readers of this article who belong to the "general public" will undoubtedly dismiss the narrative and the point of the article largely as fiction. A good story with a lot of interesting facts, but more suited to an adventure novel than to reality.

How wrong they will be. Mr. Pipes paints a frightening picture of what we're dealing with and there's nothing fictitious at all about it.

But the article also lends credence to my belief that the distinction between "Islamists" (those Muslims who advocate violence to reach their goals) and Muslims (the general Muslim population who are simply "everyday" people like you and me) is largely fictitious.

Most, if not all, western commentators, including members of the Bush administration and Mr. Pipes himself, to one degree or another, make a clear distinction between the two groups in an effort to "educate" us to the fact that Islam itself is not the culprit.

In other words, there are good guys and there are bad guys (just like in Christianity...most priests are NOT pedophiles), and we must not condemn all Muslims for what a few outlaws do.

But if you closely read most of these articles, including Mr. Pipes' current one, you will be hard pressed - at least *I* have been hard pressed - to really see the distinction.

It is true that most Muslims are not affiliated with terrorist or quasi-terrorists groups. That's fine and dandy. But at the same time many Muslims have not and will not utter a peep nor raise an admonishing finger against Muslim terrorists or Muslim criminals. This has been proven over and over again and to refuse to acknowledge this fact is simply a delay tactic.

As I've said before in another setting, there are other, passive ways of "being for a cause". Saying or doing nothing in the face of out and out criminality is, at the very least, abdicating responsibility. .. I think, in fact, many Muslims silently approve and even encourage actions such as Mr. Pipes reports is happening in Denmark...

...The problems the West faces vis a vis Islam are much more long-term and apocalyptic than we dare admit. And I can understand why we don't admit it - sometimes being silent about the truth is the best course of action.

But someday, we'll have to admit it.

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