A Million Moderate Muslims on the March

Submitted by Carl Goldberg (United States), May 8, 2007 at 15:24

I beg to disagree. You write: "Do developments in Pakistan and Turkey not confirm my oft-repeated point that radical Islam is the problem and moderate Islam the solution?"

Not at all, Dr. Pipes. There is no guarantee, or even evidence, that these developments in Pakistan and Turkey mean that moderate Islam is the solution. This is a non-sequitur. There is no guarantee that the secular Moslems in Turkey will even preserve Turkey's secularism, let alone influence the rest of the Moslem world.

As for Pakistan, where is the evidence that the secular marchers are influencing the practice of Islam and the implementation of Islamic law by the state in Pakistan? So far, these secular demonstrations are only blips on the radar screen and nothing more. We dare not place our hopes in them. The reason is that there is no such thing as "moderate Islam". There are only moderate Moslems. That is a crucial difference.

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