I got an email this morning from someone as full of moralizing as any old-fashioned schoolmarm:
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” -John Adams.
While Mr. Spencer writes eloquently and persuasively as ever, his
arguments fly in the face of certain hard facts. In Yemen, Wahhabist
clerics have successfully picked up the al-Qae’da gauntlet and broken
the back of the jihadist movement by using the Koran to persuade
hundreds of captured hardcore al-Qaeda fighters exactly on the points
that Mr. Spencer voices his gravest doubts: Islam is a religion of
peace, bin Laden had abused the Koran, and tricked them into terrorism.
His evidence for this was at the bottom of his email: an old article called “Koranic duels ease terror,” about which I commented here in February.
After a bit more moralizing, the emailer concludes:
What I don’t understand is why Mr. Spencer ignores what appears to be a factual answer to his challenges, and a way out from a future Armageddon with one billion Moslems. It isn’t like I haven’t already sent the article to him already.
Well, obviously I didn’t ignore it, but I write this now to call attention to a different point: the article “Koranic Duels Ease Terror” on which this gentleman places so much hope, is like many others in that it makes the assertion that jihadists are being converted to peace via the Qur’an without explaining how it is being done. No one has yet produced an explanation of how it can be done or is being done — which stubborn fact casts doubt on the very assertion that it is being done at all.
As I said yesterday, if you know of someone or some group that is doing this, please send me the information. I know there are many groups claiming that Islam is peaceful, with varying degrees of sincerity. I don’t know of any that are even seriously attempting to mount a refutation of the jihadist exegesis of the Qur’an and Sunnah. I would be happy to be proven wrong.