It's not just Arabs

Submitted by Pat (United States), Apr 20, 2007 at 16:18

Ynna,

Thanks. I think you're right to call them criminals, but they're not all that passive. No system of repression could continue without the people accepting it. Compare them to the people of Eastern Europe during the Cold War. They lived under repression but we knew they didn't condone it and many tried to escape it. Given the opportunity to rebuild their countries after the fall of the Soviet Union, they seized it.

We concentrate on the Arab Middle East but there is also a large contingent of Muslims in Asia.

This morning I read a frightening article on what is happening in Malaysia, a state that calls itself moderate with a "civil Islam" that is less overbearing than the Saudi version. The author likens Malaysia's form of moderate Islam to Stalinism. Citizens are issued religious identity cards and anyone who tries to leave Islam faces severe penalties. A sixty-something couple that were vacationing in Malaysia were stopped on the street because a man and woman cannot walk together in public.

I recommend www.islamwatch.org

Malaysia: Totalitarian Aspects of a "Moderate" Muslim Regime

After reading this article (and many others on the same site) it's hard to see why our leaders still cannot recognize the danger Islam (not Muslims - Islam) represents. It's a mindset that is incompatible with freedom of thought and expression. When people like Dr. Pipes talk about bolstering moderate Muslims the question becomes what is moderate? If it's a state like Malaysia, I say thanks but no thanks.

In Iran people are executed for acting "un-Islamic". Their fellow citizens report them to the militia for such activities as holding hands. Where are the moderates?

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