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| Pâ•qidꞋ Yi•rᵊmᵊyâhꞋ u |
2004.07.27 In a 2004.07.27 article, Daniel Pipes wrote:
"Tolerance, the rule of law, political and economic openness, the extension of greater opportunities to women — these cures must come from within Muslim societies themselves. The United States must support such developments… this battle is the key one, for the clash under way is not one of civilizations but one 'within a civilization,' that civilization being the Islamic one… Only Muslims can do this."
Prof. Pipes was correct that "the clash under way is not one of civilizations but one 'within a civilization,' that civilization being the Islamic one".
By contrast, however, his belief that only Muslims can do this is fatally flawed. What significant religious progress has ever occurred that wasn’t the result of intellectual prevailing by a competing religious ideology? It is Jewish and Christian debaters who, instead of being intimidated by Muslim fatwas and suppression by naïve (and miso-Judaic) media, must find ways to expose religious primitivism in a climate of tolerance and respectful debate that replaces Crusade or Jihad.
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