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Recently on the Michael Medved Show, Salam Al-Maryati of the Muslim Public Affairs Council criticized my characterization of radical Islam as a widespread global movement, and suggested that it was in fact a marginal radical fringe. He brushed aside my statements that moderate Muslims need to do more to convert radical Muslims to a more peaceful form of Islam, saying almost in the same breath that it was already being done on a large scale and that it couldn't be done anyway.
Maryati may more disposed to believe Dr. Mohammad Waseem of Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, Pakistan, who has "warned that Islamic radicalism is on the rise and liberal, modern and secular sections of society are being marginalised in Pakistan."
Waseem is no friend of the West. In the rest of his talk he blamed the West for fostering the growth of Islamic radicalism in various ways. But at least he, unlike Maryati, acknowledges that this growth is widespread.
Dr. Waseem also "criticised Western countries and their media for adopting a 'text-based' approach to Islam, instead of making an effort to understand Islamic societies and their ethos. In many cases, tradition and cultural norms were mistaken for religion which only contributed to the further distortion of Islam’s meaning and message."
In the first place, Westerners should stop reading Islamic texts when radical Muslims stop using them to justify murder. Also, if calls to violence against unbelievers are in fact in the Qur'an and other texts, they can hardly be classified as "tradition and cultural norms" instead of religious ones.
Posted by Robert at November 23, 2003 9:17 AM
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It is more disturbing than I can describe that we have entered the third year of trying to fight a war that dare not speak its name. We are utterly and willfully blind to the danger of rising Islamic fanaticism you describe.
Europe shelved a report on anti-Semitism because Muslims and pro-Palestinians turned out to be the primary culprits. (Obviously a new holocaust is OK if it makes Arafat feel better.) Bush rhetorically stabs Israel in the back every time Blair or Prince Abdullah have a bad dream.
American voters who think the government is not tough enough in fighting the War on Islamists is at 44% and rising. And yet we may see Iraqification as a cover for "retreat with honor". Bush may find a third party threat on his right if this continues.
As David Warren tersely put it, "This clash is unlikely to end well."
Douglas Bilodeau
Bloomington, Indiana
While my reading of the Koran is very limited (it's a very big book and I'm trying to put together grad school applications), it occurs to me from Mr. Spencer and other sources as well as what I have read from the book itself that radical Islam IS on the decline...because the 'radicals' are the liberal, tolerant ones. We need to recognize that the Islam practiced in North America is a liberalized, declawed version of the religion that's very different from what they learn in Africa, Asia and Europe, and even then there are more traditionalist "radicals" than we like to think. Until such time as we do that we're just going to spin our wheels embracing a minority and holding it up as what the religion is, rather than an aberration that should become the norm.
Pax,
Doctor Villain
i agree with you douglas check out the url below its in my opinion what is needed to defeat our enemy as for reading the koran i havent read it word for word totally but i read enough to see it for myself what we are agains allah isnt a god of peace and love but a god of war and subjudgation
http://www.denbeste.nu/cd_log_entries/2003/11/TotalWar.shtml
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