Dear Dale:
I absolutely agree we need to stop excusing the atrocities committed by fanatical Muslims. And I also believe we need to demand that Muslims renounce jihadism, dhimmitude, and terrorism.
However, I think that will be difficult. Because I believe ISLAM itself is radical and prone to tolerating war and terror against non Muslims. There are too many texts in the Koran alone for me not to draw such a conclusion. One example being Sura 48.29: "Mohammed is Allah's apostle. Those who follow him are RUTHLESS to the unbelievers but merciful to one another" (quoting Dawood's translation).
Sincerely, Sean
The novella Bab el Oued provides an interesting depiction (the setting is contemporary Algeria) of the problems youths have of coming into their own as men and how work, family responsibility, and the moral and ethical life may be discharged well or ill. Included within this is a comparison of two characters, in one of whom Muslim piety is incorporated within and sustains a (young) man's life properly lived, and another in which it substitutes for adult life and is itself distorted and poisoned.
Whatever Robert Spencer says about what texts say, people are not strict logicians in how they conduct themselves. I think if we look around us, we can perceive that people will more or less ignore the texts in question if not doing so interferes with mundane life, provided that the living of mundane life is not impeded by structural factors; no need for canned denunciations of 'dhimmitude' or whatever.
One might also suspect that rude advocacy groups will learn to behave themselves if they are given the brush off by authorities (and prosecuted if they violate the Penal Law). Our chatterati, who appear very invested in the conception of themselves as sophisticated and decent souls in the land of pitchforks-and-peasants, are not inclined to do that.
Hi, Art.
I mostly agree with your remarks. But, I don't have the ninety percent of Muslims who are lax, indifferent, or too decent to be strictly logical about following the dictates of Islam. I have only the five or ten perecnt who are that fanatically consistent. That still leaves many many millions of potentially violent terrorists and jihadists. More than enough to throw the world into chaos.
Sincerely,
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