Missed Opportunity and Excess

Submitted by jj mollo (United States), Apr 25, 2006 at 11:23

I agree with what he says, but Hobbs should have the courage of his convictions. If he believes what he wrote, why does he not defend it? Instead he deleted the cartoon. That seems to indicate a certain self-doubt. No problem with self-doubt, but he ought to admit it and discuss the reasons for it. Why does he not explain the conditions of his departure? Did he just lose his temper and storm off? If he was in the right, he should have kicked up a public fuss. Maybe it's the caption that did him in. The cartoon suggesting Mohammed is responsible for Muslim violence is one thing, but saying "Mohammed blows" is a childish insult unconnected to any point in his line of reasoning. It reveals either a degree of religously oriented animus or an impulsive weakness for the pun. He should still be allowed to print it of course, but it loses some of its merit.

I greatly respect your work, Daniel Pipes. I read your posts and have been aware of your views on Islamic extremism for years. I was convinced of their accuracy the first time I heard you speak on them, maybe decades ago. For anyone else, I would not make this complaint, and I am certainly unqualified to chide you, but coming from you, that last sentence is distressing. "Each surrender means the Shari‘a will move inexorably forward." It is irritating in so many ways, but, in a phrase, it is an uncharacteristic hyperbolic assertion that a stepwise mechanistic connection exists between the moral import of every personnel decision and the final victory of the Taleban in America. Your intellectual detachment has served you very well in the past. Don't let impulse choose your concluding lines.

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