to Niels

Submitted by Sidda (United States), Mar 7, 2006 at 19:32

Niels, as an American I can assure you that we do not think of the world as a "lesser place." A lot of us do, however, think that some Europeans tend to want to avoid facing threats head-on and prefer to look the other way as those threats gather. The run-up to WW2 would be a good example. We believe that many of you are doing the same thing in regard to the Islamist threat in Europe now. And there are plenty of Europeans who echo these sentiments.

I hope you do not have to come to the point of having a knife in your chest with a note pinned to it before you finally wake up and smell the coffee. Unfortunately, it will be too late for you then. Actually, I do agree that extremism in any religion or ideology is a danger; however, let me know when Christians start sawing the heads off of helpless, bound victims in the name of Christianity, or blow up buses and trains at the height of rush hour in order to ensure the highest casualties. The same for Jews, or any other group. No, my friend. There is a real problem within Islam right now. Of course, I agree with you that every person who calls themselves "Muslim" is not a terrorist; there are many peaceful Muslims. But, Islam needs to undergo a reformation, or "enlightenment."

There are millions of Muslims who have been radicalized all over the world in the last 30 years or so by the Wahhabi/Salafists. They have funded their mosques and madrassas with the oil petrodollars. So, it's not just a "handful of extremists." And they use over 100 verses in the Quran in which Muhammed extols his followers to convert, subjugate, or kill all the unbelievers as justification for their acts. The "moderate" Muslims are either afraid to stand up to them, or are not interested in doing so.

Yes, one mad man killed Theo van Gogh, another mad man tried to run over nine people this week at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, another mad man cuts the heads off of people, more mad men burn down buildings, threaten cartoonists with death, kill, and create murder and mayhem. More mad men are slaughtering villagers in the Sudan, imposing Sharia Law on Christians in Nigeria. Mad men went on a rampage and killed school children in Beslan; of course, they had their reasons as did the ones who killed and rioted over the Miss World pageant in Nigeria. They also beheaded Buddhist monks in Thailand and three innocent young girls on their way to school in Indonesia, I believe. Seems to be an awful lot of mad men out in the world today, huh? Wasn't Ayan Hirsi Ali forced to go into hiding for fear of her life? Well, if you don't mind, I guess it's ok with me.

Maybe what you should do is read the Quran and Hadiths, study what the four schools of Islamic jurisprudence has to say about waging jihad against Infidels. That should take awhile. Then listen to what the Islamists are actually saying. They are quite forthcoming about their plans for the infidel world; I don't believe we've ever had an enemy that told us exactly what they planned to do to us.

---

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".