Response to Robert Odean

Submitted by Sanchez (Brazil), Apr 21, 2007 at 11:52

The comments by Robert Odean are interesting and make sense, in fact more than the other article in my opinion. I fully agree that any true solution to the Islamic menace has to come from within their societies, there is nothing we can do to help them. Western nations can ban them, bomb them, shun them but in the end true and lasting reform has to come from within as it did in the case of Japan and Germany.

However, the crucial difference between the villians of WWII and present day Muslim societies is that the ideologies that gripped Nazi Germany and Japan were new, temporary and manufactured while in the case of Islamic countries they have a deep resonance that go back centuries to the foundation of Islam itself.

The only solution is for Islam to be openly and fearlessly defeated in the marketplace of ideas but it is a formidable challenge. For this the place to start would be Iran which has the largest number of secular and apostate muslims in any country. The unfortunate thing is that America has not shown any appetite for any "out of the box" thinking with regards to tackling this global and mammoth problem.

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