If we knew then

Submitted by Gil Schwartz (United States), Jun 10, 2002 at 17:38

Mr. Pipes:

I sometimes wonder how you can contain yourself when the orher guest on the panel dosen't even realize what you've said.

But the example you bring up about the Nazi and Communists. Herb Weitz, who has written you, author of the Hashemite Solution made an interesting comparison in that vain.

"Saudi-Wahabi brand of Islam resembles both Nazism and Communism in that it can tolerate no other system. The Nazi party had 30,000 members at its height. The communist party had 25,000. If at anytime we could have neutralized JUST THEM, no World War II and a short Cold War. But back then we did not have the capacity in any way to exact such an outcome.

There are 15-20,000 Saudi Wahabbis. We do have the capacity to neutralize this group. It is clear that the devil we don't know cannot be worse than the devil we do know."

Regards,
Gil Schwartz

---

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".