Lawrence Auster challenges Daniel Pipes’ view of Islam at FrontPage today, and Pipes responds. It is in some spots worthwhile reading, although in many ways they’re talking past each other.
My own position on all this I have made clear many times, although it has been rather cravenly misrepresented by those with their own agenda. There are moderate Muslims, but Islam itself is not moderate. The prospects for reform in Islam are exceedingly dim. I agree with Auster (as does Pipes, who also quotes this sentence) that “the West must confront Islam as Islam and so reduce its power to the point where Muslims have no opportunity to wage jihad campaigns against us. Under such circumstances a more decent type of Islam may arise.” Or at least one that is easier to deal with. I expanded on this in a recent article.