some things don't change

Submitted by rw (United States), Sep 5, 2017 at 21:17

Dear Dr. Pipes,

I think you are mistaken.

My country, England, was formerly, imperialist, in so far as we had an empire. However, this was certainly a changeable phenomenon. In the time of Elizabeth I we were not 'imperialist', and neither have we been under Elizabeth II. We had a period from say 1750 to 1945 when we had an empire. Clearly though, this situation was temporary. Why? Because there is nothing written into the English character or into some form of constitution that states that we are 'imperialist'. Our imperialism was a great historical accident.

This is clearly not true of Islam. (Violent imperialism is inscribed into its character and constitution.)

Much as I enjoy following the pragmatic apporoach of your various analyses, at some point one has to start considering truth issues. Islam makes tremendous truth claims, which are to be refuted.

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".