To Moshe: Thanks

Submitted by Nabil Ahmad (United States), Aug 17, 2006 at 18:50

You're the first to respond to any post of mine with something that I consider to be constructive and sensible.

I agree that Most Muslims around the world are not extremists. I am also alarmed by the prospect that a large number of Muslims who may not be extremists at all may not be altogether hostile towards them, either.

Islamic extremism is a cancer in our midst and needs to be exised ASAP before it spreads...and it is spreading. The West has not helped to arrest its spread and can do more...not by cutting friendly relations with Israel but by not allowing the extremist elements from the Arab world and other Muslim countries to gain asylum within their borders. This has been happening for too long in countries like Great Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand and the USA. As you may already know, it seems that a large majority of Mosques may already be in the hands of extremists who will not give up their hold on them without a fight.

Once these extremists gain entry into the west, they prey on Muslim immigrant communities, especially those which are lower- and middle-class, brainwashing the youth among them with impunity under the guise of "freedom of speech". By doing so, they are slowliy turning Islam into what you call a "Cult". That is exactly what extremist Islam is...a violent, racist, bigoted cult based on highly selective exerpts from the Qur'an and various Hadiths. God's Mercy be damned.

Islam has survived, grown and endured for 1,400 years now in spite of vilification from its critics and attacks from non-Muslims from the outside and schisms and extremism from the inside. However, the biggest threat to Islam today comes not from non-Muslims but from Muslims themselves...our biggest enemies are ignorance, laziness, apathy, religious prejudice against non-Mulsims and intellectual and political backwardness. It is up to Muslims themselves to realize that the only way that Islam can become a civilizing force once again is not through wars, persecution and political depotism but through freedom, democracy and the willingness to broaden one's mind beyond mental borders that have remained rigid for too long. Taking a thorough, critical, intellectual look at the history of Islam does not hurt anyone...except the extremists who don't have anything intellectually concrete to rest their ideas and ideals on.

I wish you all the best. Take good care.

Nabil Ahmad

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