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| International |
| Is this a war against Islam? |
| 2001-10-30 |
Islam is the driving force behind every major conflict in the Middle East -- and, by one calculation, it is behind about half of the world's armed conflicts, from Algeria to the Philippines. The latest Palestinian intifada was sparked by incendiary anti-Jewish speeches by Muslim clerics in Palestinian mosques. And when Iranian protesters chant "Death to America," they do it after similar sermons at their own mosques. The evils of dogmatism and religious tyranny are endemic to Islamic culture -- and our evasion of this fact is making a mockery of the War on Terrorism. Consider the demands to halt the Afghan campaign during the holy month of Ramadan -- an attempt to make our leaders obey the decrees of their Mullahs. Or look at our shameful betrayal of Israel, an open attempt to sacrifice the Jews to appease the religious hatred of the Muslims. And worse, our refusal to recognize Islam as the enemy is preventing us from waging a wider war against all Islamic terrorist states. If we want to win this war, we must begin by recognizing that it is a war against Islam -- or to be more exact, this is Islamic fundamentalism's war against the "infidel" secularism of the West. Our goal in this war should be to beat down, to curtail, to drive out Islamic fundamentalism -- not to replace it with our own religion, but to force Islam, like the religions of the civilized world, to lay down its arms and accept the freedom of a secular society. If you fight with a skunk, you've got to be prepared to put up with the smell. Islam as a religion is more unlike the Judaeo-Christian tradition than Buddhism or Zoroastrianism. That's not because of the text of the Koran, but because of the underlying Arab culture that gave birth to it. The religion is just an expression of the culture. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |