Ms. Khanum

Submitted by Daisy (United States), Sep 21, 2005 at 00:33

Good luck, Ms. Khanum ... but to increase your odds of success, may I strongly suggest you change your strategy? You say, "We will continue our peaceful efforts against the jihadis and the Islamists and any other radical extremist movements within us. We will do it to the best of our ability." Peaceful simply isn't going to be sufficient, I'm sad to say. You must be loud and clear at the very least.

As far as the "organizational" difficulties -- frankly, I think that your reply is disingenuous ... Islam claims no hierarchy ... nevertheless, there is one .. the Imams and the despots split the take ... and mainly the poor are giving. The pretense of no hierarchy in Islam is, in my opinion, an excuse to do remain passive and do nothing.

Muslims must do more than Muslims are doing to eradicate extreme Islamism. More than credibility is at stake .. but true honor does allow credibility to one's word to be a sufficient reason to act. Extraordinarily, there is no sense of irony when Muslims squawk about how the USA's stature has been badly compromised in the viewpoint of Muslims (to put it politely) .. and show absolutely no inclination to look at their own religion's diminished stature ... only being willing to claim how under-recognized is the greatness of Islam!

You may not be aware of this phenomena -- but in American culture we do not ordinarily boast about religious prowess ( or if we do, we do it within the confines of our own religions). This allows us to better practice the humanly challenging task of tolerance for other's beliefs. Most Americans will have a reflexively negative reaction to boasting or instructing about one's religion; please don't do it while in the US ... it's simply not good form, Ms. Khanum.

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