To Noah, Don, Mike - allow me to clarify my position

Submitted by Michel C. Zala (United States), Jan 8, 2007 at 21:07

To Noah, Don – Thank you for your response and education as well as for not attacking me on a personal level.

Whoa - did I get hammered.

First of all - I apologize for anything which may have offended you all.
That was sincerely not my intention.

Allow me to touch on my background, so one can understand, where I come from:
Jewish Parents, most of the family eradicated by the Nazis, father refugee from a communistic Hungary later to Switzerland, where I was born. Emigrated to the US, business exec with a high level of travel during the last 15 years including many Muslim countries. Raised as Roman Catholic and still practicing Christian.

1. I have no inclination so ever to be a " marxist". I despise any form of totalitarian systems for aforementioned reasons.
2. I love my country (USA) from the bottom of my heart - it has given me all I have, freedom, liberty and prosperity. Truly the right to pursue happiness. I will defend her always.
3. With many relatives in beleaguered Israel, I certainly have no bias towards ISLAM.
4. I share the opinion that islamic radical fundamentalism is the greatest danger we ever faced.
5. I agree that the Quran is fundamentally exclusive and aggressive, hence Islam in dire need of a reformation".

My submission was in no way meant to attack the Bible or Christianity. I did not mean to imply that fanatic Christians would blow up planes and such. I do not deny that Christianity has reformed to a non-violent mainstream which is for the most part being held in check by separation of church and state. Historically however, as some of you mentioned, we do indeed have a lot of skeletons in the closet too.

I have in fact with 250k air miles/year during the last decade been in these countries and almost all western countries as well. All I can do is to state my personal experiences, which were in a vast majority very positive.

In various submissions have I tried to outline the danger we are in and even a basic macro strategy which would be feasible. I do feel, as you do, the need for us to wake up and smell the coffee.

Having said that - and I am not arguing the numbers ( took the 15% from Pipes) - if this huge standing army was so militant and is in this country for decades now, why haven't we seen suicide bombings yet? If this admittedly large and growing population segment was in its entirety fanatic, why have we not seen even a hint of domestic homegrown Islamic terrorism yet? (9/11 - I consider as import)

Exploding Devices - I know myself by military background - are incredibly easy to fabricate with chemicals which can be bought over the counter and recipes readily available on the internet. Not one single suicide bombing in the US. How do you explain this, Noah? If I was an Islamic Fundamentalist, I could fabricate such a device today and tomorrow explode the thing in a busy shopping mall or school without ever being checked. I live here in the US – there is no way we could prevent it.

Why do we see in the USA which is after all in spite of all home land security measures still one of the most vulnerable countries in the world due to our precious civil rights and freedom, more homegrown terrorism still (white supremacy, Oklahoma City, Una Bombings, Abortion Clinics)?

One answer to the phenomenon may be that most of the millions of our domestic Muslims actually do enjoy the liberty, freedom and free pursuit of happiness. Maybe, just maybe they have not yet felt suppressed enough and cornered. Maybe because we have not interned them in camps. So far we have yet to see attacks on the Muslim population of a larger scale. Something, if we continue to put all Muslims into the same cliché drawer, may very well happen. Isn't it ironic that all prevented and actual terrorism attacks were organized from abroad? None of these people was a US Citizen to my knowledge or had lived here for a long time other than some short term Green Card holders.

Do they internally sympathize with the fundamentalists? Looking at the hatred they as a whole segment experience at present, they probably do deep down, as much as I did, when tiny Israel prevailed several times against overwhelming forces. Did I hate the muslims then? No, I hated their governments and demagogues.

However, If we continue to put all Muslims into the same category, all we do is play in to the hands of Fundamentalist Islam. Hate creates hatred in return.

We must to my opinion help our own Muslim minorities to become leading examples for the entire Islamic third world while crushing any form of religious fanatism by any means needed domestically as well as abroad.

Ironically, as a side remark, - see my submission to Susan, I actually would promote a military intervention in IRAN (up to and not limited to nuclear bunker busting bombs, if necessary), as their entire administration is fanatic per definition and would never shy away from using a nuclear device to wipe out Israel, even, if it that meant suicide for an entire country.

There are many ways to fight fundamentalism. Domestically we are not doing so bad, unless we start hatemongering and really inflame this so far silent army you describe, Noah.

But do we need to be aware of the risk? – you are absolutely right we must see the potential and work towards further and stronger assimilation of this culture into ours.

American first, Muslim second will further strengthen us as a super power with a multi-cultural backbone. That mentality however is not obtained by hate but by education and leading by example (I only speak in a domestic context).

But , Don, see my response to Noah, I simply fear that we too easily dispense with so many of peaceful Muslims to whom militant extremism is as foreign as it is to us. We just haven't heard from them sufficiently, which is why I challenged them today calling them out.

I am simply not willing yet to vilify an entire people. Especially not the ones living already in the western countries.

But if we continue to apply grosso modo clichés and label most Muslims as potential terrorists, then we will create the exact monster we warn against.

Hoping my submission may result in some moderate Muslim voices to be heard here, I reserve the right for my personal final judgment of an entire culture for a later time.

I further hope that this so often vilified Turkey ( admittedly with a bloody history) may successfully integrate with the EU and eventually become a leading example for what I promote. Compared to places like Pakistan or many middle eastern countries they are way further along a long long development towards a free democracy with Islam as their main religion. Why not give them a chance to make the experiment work and not look back at the genocides of the Ottoman Empire or even their reformer Kemal Atatuerk?

Am I just an idealistic mumbo jumbo fool, trying to lookforward and see the glass half full, instead of continuously hammering them on their past? The approach of the Susans is counter-productive and only pushes them back towards radical Islam. History has shown that any progress is a two steps forward, one step backwards process. I have personally seen progress on the streets of Istanbul. I felt as secure as on any street in LA.

Can we jumpstart 21^st century western style democracies in countries which were in the middle ages only 2 generations ago and some still are? It simply takes time and the wisdom to give it to them. It must come from within, can not be forced upon them.

Believe me, gents, I am anything but a pacifist. I am one of the few supporting the Irak Campaign from the get go, even though I call it doing the right thing for the wrong reasons. If we weren't stretched so thin already and still had allies ( see other submission) I'd actually argue for military intervention in several middle eastern countries.

Unfortunately purely pragmatic thinking forces us to look for other ways to stem the tide of Islamic fundamentalism as America has also gotten tired of doing the dirty work for all other so called free countries.

---

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".