When I proposed in my book The Enemy at Home (newly out in paperback) that America should ally with traditional Muslims to defeat the radical Muslims, some conservatives reacted with amazement. Where, these savants inquired, are the traditional Muslims? Clearly the exposure of some on the right to the Muslim world was limited to the viewing of clips of Bin Laden videos on the Fox News Channel.
Then last October a group of 138 Muslim scholars from diverse schools of thought wrote an open letter to Pope Benedict urging "mutual understanding" between Christianity and Islam. Titled "A Common Word Between Us and You," the letter notes that Muslims and Christians can find shared ground based on the dual commandments to love God and love our neighbor.
"As Muslims," the letter goes, "we say to Christians that we are not against them and that Islam is not against them--so long as they do not wage war against Muslims on account of their religion, oppress them, and drive them out of their homes." The letter was carefully worded so that it did not confuse clashes of interests with a war against the Muslim religion. In effect, the Muslim leaders were saying that their religious quarrel is only with atheists and other enemies of Islam.
Liberal Christians reacted to the letter with their usual abasement. Certainly some relief was in order, because Muslims who seek common cause with the West, or at least with the Christian West, are far preferable to those who seek to destroy us. Even so, why are liberal Christians so quick to prostrate themselves? "We want to begin by acknowledging that in the past (e.g. in the Crusades) and in the present (e.g. in the war on terror) many Christians have been guilty of sinning against our Muslim neighbor...We ask forgiveness of the All-Merciful One and of the Muslim community around the world."
The Vatican, accustomed to dealing with Muslim diplomatic initiatives for centuries, responded with much greater caution. While welcoming the initiative to dialog, the Vatican's Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran stressed that genuine common ground requires reciprocity. So if Muslims want to have full rights of worship in Western countries, they should grant those same rights to Christians in Muslim countries. If Muslims have the freedom to build mosques in London and Chicago, Christians should be able to build churches in Islamabad and Amman.
One group of ignoramuses wants to wage an ideological war against Islam. Another group of sycophants wants to curry favor among Muslims, just so long as they abstain from bombing us. In between these two there is a sensible option: to negotiate respectfully but firmly with traditional Muslims, building on shared values but also insisting that justice and goodwill must come from both sides of the street.
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Muslims Who Renounce Violence
Posted Feb 20th 2008 2:02AM by Dinesh D'Souza
Filed under: Terrorism, Islam, Christianity, Islamic Radicals
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Reader Comments ( Page 35 of 35)
511. Exactly true, not-pboy. Agreed.
Godless Heathen Brian at 6:53PM on Feb 25th 2008
512. bump
not-pboyfloyd at 3:42PM on Feb 26th 2008
513. I have just finished reading and rereading this letter very carefully. The things that stand out to me are the fact that the arguments contained are open ended. There are conditions for which the "Holy War are approved - however, there is no clarity regarding the conditions. Also, the assertation that there is no "forced conversion" to Islam - talk to any arabic person who has tried to be a Christian in thier homelands if you want the truth on this subject. there is not even tolerance of choice, let alone practice of religious freedom. Finally, to be concise, If the premise of this letter were true, the moderate Muslims would be compelled to contain and destroy the radical factions themselves due to blasphemy of Allah and Islam. They would not require so much unserstanding if they defended the tennents of thier religion - or is that what the radicals are doing. This letter is double talk and not supported by the Islamic society's behavior.
HOMER at 9:26PM on Feb 26th 2008
514. Dinesh reported what the Pope had said, correctly. The problem is that Protestants don't pay much attention. Appeasing the Muslims is not a workable solution; theirs is one of the most extreme of monotheistic religions. Instead of teaching "thou shalt have no other gods before me" which admits the existence of other beliefs but only commands Christians and Jews to worship (their) God exclusively, Islam teaches (or shouts) "There is no god but Allah!!" The obvious, inherent intolerance in this should be obvious even to a fifth grader. The Pope is absolutely right to respond with caution to Muslim overtures. Radical Islam is a worldwide threat, and the moderate Muslims in Islamic countries live in fear of these fanatics.
Carol Vega at 1:21AM on Feb 27th 2008
515. Once again Dinesh D'Sousa reveals his twisted world view through the dark prism of ad hominem attacks, labels, sweeping generalizations and name-calling that would make a self-proclaimed neighborhood bully blush. The good news is, that your distorted world view can change with a little look in the mirror and the realization that what we think we always knew may be - false.
"Ignoramuses"? "Sycophants"? "Savants"? "etc."?
Dinesh? Have you ever studied General Semantics? Just as the map is not the territory, individuals are not the label you so readily attach to them. To say someone "is" something is a lie, because by definition, it is to say that some*one* is "equal" to some*thing*. You stoop lower by stereotyping your false labels not to just an individual, but to entire groups - again and again. We all say and do "stupid" and "brilliant" things, but none of us are either stupid nor brilliant in total.
Why not just address actions and behaviors on their own merit and name names? By not doing so, you give the impression that you think the world's people are just as inflexible as you seem to think yourself to be. Ever heard of egocentrics? Take a long, hard look in the mirror, Dinesh. That superstitious god that you pretend to cling to so hard, does not see us humans in the same false labels as you do. People change and grow all the time, usually through education, not through name-calling and your "us verses them" world view of static labels.
Chris Aable at 7:03AM on Mar 21st 2008
516. Well put Chris. The volume of hatred from so-called "Christians" is staggering. Thankfully most are peaceful people as are most atheists. People like Dinesh and that ugly devil he once called a girlfriend, Ann Coulter (figures)can't bring themselves to think outside of their stereotypes.
RMEB at 8:34AM on Mar 16th 2009