If a military power were to act as Islamists do will recommend a different immigration policy toward them

Submitted by Prashant (United States), Sep 24, 2016 at 17:24

Dear Dr Pipes, the problem with Islam is that it is so badly intertwined with politics and normal Muslims are not doing enough to oppose this entanglement.

To an outside observer Islam can very much look like a single political entity. I will provide evidence:

First, Islam acts as a unified military/political power. Muslim countries support each other in the same ways as communist countries of the last centuries supported each other.

Second, Islam acts as an economic entity. We do not have economic coalitions of Hindu/Buddists/Christians/Jewish nations. But we see all sorts of Islamic economic/social coalitions (Red Crescent, OIC, OPEC --primarily Islamic--, Islamic Banks etc etc).

Third, Islam has its own constitution (Sharia). All Islamic countries try to work as much according to this constitution as possible.

Fourth, Islamic countries have their own armies (alquaeda, ISIS, PLO etc) which cooperate with each other..

I think the above four traits constitute a common-sense definition of a political entity or nation.

If Islam resembles a political entity what is wrong if Donald Trump wants to treat it as a political and not as a religious entity? We treated communists differently from everyone else after all.

If Islam wants to look like a religious entity, it has to work hard to achieve that status. Here are some solutions:

1. Shift your primary focus to spirituality. Not to economics, not to politics, not to wars of independence, not to social aspects but to spirituality.

2. Don't isolate yourself. There is no need for Islamic anything. There is no need for Islamic banks, there is no need for Islamic version of red cross, there is no need for organizations of Islamic nations.
If there is something good in Islamic finance, for example, everyone will adopt it as a secular policy.

3. When Muslims do actions that look and feel like political actions, treat them as such. Nothing becomes good just because it carries that tag Islamic. Oppose mass murders by even untrue Muslims. If someone gets killed in Paris by someone who claims to be representing Islam but is an "untrue" Muslim, let there be candle light vigils in every city of the world by "true" Muslims.

4. Stop hating the West: A lot of things went wrong in history. Colonialism and Crusades were were two of them. But no historical wrong can be justified to justify present day hatred.

Very complex problems have very simple solutions. We just don't want to do them. Islamic leadership should try to follow the above four suggestions. They are not too much to ask for. Everyone else is already doing them!!!

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