The way to deal with Militant Islam

Submitted by Haim Belisowski (Canada), Oct 22, 2002 at 09:43

Dear Mr. Pipes,

I admire your foresight and analyses about militant Islam. You were right all along about the source and the dangers of this menace to world peace. It appears that unless militant Islam is stopped, the world will be dragged into a long and bloody war of terror with unpredictable consequences. The gathering momentum of radicalism in the Islamic world may culminate in the next world war (especially if the radicals get their hand on Mass Destruction Weapons).

I believe however that the West cannot defeat Radical Islam on its own. In fact, every battle against Radical Islam by the West, raises its stature in the eyes of other Muslims, and thus increases the number of its admirers and potential recruits. Radical Islam is an internal problem within the Muslim world and must be dealt with by other Muslims.

Therefore, the only solution would be for the West to persuade the Muslim world to deal with these radicals in anyway they see fit – not necessarily by our standards but by theirs. The West should formulate a unified stand (I know this would be difficult) vis-à-vis the entire Muslim world to deal with this problem or face cessation of all interaction with the West. This may sound extreme but if the Muslim world does not deal with this time bomb now, it will not be able to deal with it later because the radicals will become too powerful.

Whether we bury our heads in the sand or not, it is a clash of civilizations. Better to clash now using peaceful means than later using nuclear weapons.

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