Another way of getting information out.
Reader comment on item: Preface

Submitted by Harry Sweeney (United States), Nov 22, 2007 at 20:55

Dr. Pipes, please refer to www.politicomafioso.com. Each week I usually provide three columns which are dialogues of three fictitious Muslim characters, Modi (Moderate), Mani (Mainstream), and Radi (Radical). The characters argue about issues in the Qur'an, the Iraq War, the meanings of parts of the Sharia, Death penalties, etc., anything that touches Muslim life anywhere. They discuss the United States, Europe, other Middle East countries, and of course their own Iraq. We do get comments on the dialogues from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Yemen, and other Middle Eastern countries.

The dialogues provide easy to understand information and the moderate, mainstream, and radical view of that information. In short, sometimes the characters seem to fight like cats and dogs over something that we believe would be insignificant, but in fact affects us negatively. Some of the arguments are gloomy and the radical is not adverse to making death threats; however, despite this apparent enmity, the three pray together and are in fact great friends, as are their wives. At least two of the dialogues covered the idea of reforming Islam. The dialogues are numbered so that people can refer to certain ones for answers or know which ones they did not see.

The dialogues may not be perfect; however, it is much easier to understand the problems if the problems are presented in a form that people in general find easy to read. A Muslim in another blog asked that the dialogues be continued and made available on a broader basis. He thought that young Muslims should read the arguments; they were avoiding the "learned tomes", so they had to have something else that gave them the information. Once in a while, I do not use the usual characters, but instead have a dialogue between, say, a 16 year old girl about to be hanged, and her judge that is taking part in the hanging. My #55, the most recent, were two Iraqis looking for work and talking about the army, the police, a poor little sister for whom a father is seeking a husband, and becoming martyrs.

I see myself agreeing with you completely. The information and the variances in beliefs must be seen and understood by new Muslims, non-Muslims, and as many others as possible. It is dangerous for us Westerners not to know as much as we can about Islam. Without that knowledge as a base, we cannot expect to protect ourselves while dealing with the East. We have already seen that the administration is no help, nor is the media. You have found that Liberal universities are not much help. So, it seems that it is up to us, and we have to be up to it. I am proud to say that I do the best I can to be a small part of what you do, even if I do it slightly differently. hjs

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