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Pipes: Islam isn’t evil

I wonder how many of Daniel Pipes’ critics have read his article entitled Islam isn’t evil: (via Damian Penny)

It is a mistake to blame Islam (a religion 14 centuries old) for the evil that should be ascribed to militant Islam (a totalitarian ideology less than a century old). The terrorism of al Qaeda, Hamas, the Iranian government and other Islamists results from the ideas of such contemporary radicals as Osama bin Laden and Ayatollah Khomeini, not from the Koran.

Pipes then goes on to defend Islam against common misconceptions, as well as to develop a reasonable thesis about how Islam needs to modernize.

This makes me wonder why all the people protesting against Pipes were so against him. I suspect it has very little to do with Pipes’s views on Islam, and more to do with his defence of Israel. Because to the extreme left, any defence of Israel is “racist”.

{ 8 comments… add one }
  • Hanthala 02.01.03, 4:06 AM

    So, if it is “militant Islam” that is the problem and not “Islam” then why does Pipes target ordinary American Muslim citizens?

  • Peter 02.01.03, 5:31 AM

    I think Pipes lays it out pretty clearly what the Islamic world has to do to change. Of course Muslims and their vitriolic supporters in the West can spend all their time and energy railing against a bunch of Jews who have built homes on barren hilltops in the Judean desert while Muslim civilization goes to pot.

  • Hanthala 02.01.03, 4:57 PM

    Daniel Pipe’s comments about Muslims (not Islamists) is what is racist, nevermind his views on Israel (although defending apartheid falls into the category of racism):

    “Muslim government employees in law enforcement, the military, and the
    diplomatic corps need to be watched for connections to terrorism, as do
    Muslim chaplains in prisons and the armed forces. Muslim visitors and
    immigrants must undergo additional background checks. Mosques require a
    scrutiny beyond that applied to churches, synagogues and temples.” –Daniel Pipes

    I bet you’d call me racist if I said:
    “Jewish government employees in law enforcement, the military, and the
    diplomatic corps need to be watched for connections to terrorism, as do
    Jewish rabbis in prisons and the armed forces. Jewish visitors and
    immigrants must undergo additional background checks. Synagogues require a scrutiny beyond that applied to churches and temples.”

  • Peter 02.01.03, 5:18 PM

    “I bet you’d call me racist if I said”

    I already know you are a racist, Hanthala.

  • Hanthala 02.01.03, 5:51 PM

    I see Peter. Nice way to dodge the issue. And what exactly do you base that opinion on?

  • Mike M. 02.01.03, 9:13 PM

    Hanthala, you’ve missed the point. Pipes calls for profiling of Muslims because Islamofascism is prevalent in the Muslim comminity. Unarguably. He isn’t racist for stating matter of fact truth and calling for practical measures. To his credit, Pipes also calls for Islam to, if it wishes to survive, reject and change these elements.

  • Ikram Saeed 02.01.03, 11:24 PM

    Yah Pipes doesn’t hate Islam, he hates most Muslims. A distinction without a difference.

    And Pipes does have Muslim friends. He has friends over at ICNA (Islamic Circle of North America), a rival organization ot ISNA (Islamic Society of North America), which helps explain why Pipes demonizes ISNA and CAIR so much.

    But a telling signal on Pipes views was his strong opposition to PBS showing a (fairly anodyne) documentary on the Prophet Muhammad that played a few weeks ago. ICNA, Pipes “good Muslims” had nothing but laudatory things to say about the documentary. That led me to believe that ICNA is Pipes’ beard, a cover he uses to say “some of my best friends are Muslim”

    (Pipes, and Suleyman Stephen Schwartz’ embarce of ICNA and Sufi Islam is strongly reminscent of an earlier generation of anti-communist crusaders who had embraced Trotsykite positions. Me, I think these new neo-can Muslim-haters are just recycling the script they used in the Cold War. When you get used to having an enemy for 50 years, it can be hard to live without one. Check out Diane Francis’ column in the Post on this past Friday for a similar theme.)

    The Pipes debate is old and boring. he’s been discussed to death in plenty of fora. Bring on a new topic.

  • Hanthala 02.03.03, 7:22 PM

    The Pipes “debate” may be old and boring but if/when you find yourself the victim of his hate-mongering you won’t let it go so easily.

    Mike: You’ve missed the point. I doubt you’d tolerate the second paragraph in my message regardless of the context in which it was said.

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