Phony "Islamopohobia" must be exposed

Submitted by Carl Goldberg (United States), Oct 25, 2005 at 16:58

Dear Dr. Pipes,

You are certainly right to attack the anti-"Islamophobia" movement as a smokescreen to promote Islamic extremism. However, your detractors in this question surely recognize what you refuse to admit publicly, namely that Islamic extremism grows directly out of the fundamentals of Islam: the Koran and Hadith. They know that Islam and Islamic extremism cannot be separated and that exposing Islamic extremism must eventually lead to exposing and denouncing the Koran and the Hadith.

A small handful of brave and intelligent people like Irshad Manji are still trying to square the circle; but they will, ultimately, fail. Irshad Manji is a "future ex-Moslem." The extremists attack her because they know that when you start tinkering with the Koran and the Hadith, the entire theological edifice of Islam crashes. The extremists know that the circle cannot be squared. Contrary to what you write in your concluding paragraph ((Muslims should ... better to ponder how Islamists have transformed their faith into an ideology celebrating murder (Al-Qaeda: "You love life, we love death") and develop strategies to redeem their religion ...)) Islamists have NOT transformed their faith into an ideology. Islam was always an ideology and a political program from the beginning, -- and a totalitarian one, at that. How often we read, even on ostensibly moderate Moslem websites, that Islam is "a complete way of life"! Well, what is that if not totalitarian? The Islamists are merely revitalizing, not transforming, their religion.

I have great respect for you and your work. Keep it up!

Respectfully yours,

Carl Goldberg

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