The Tyranny of Fundamentalist Islam

Submitted by David J. Bastyr (United States), Nov 13, 2003 at 10:15

Of course, President Bush is correct when he stated that "Sixty years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us safe" and he should be commened for as you said breaking with traditional foreign policy of coddling Arab dictators.

However, I believe the threat goes much deeper coming from the indoctrination of fundamentalist Islam itself. The preachers of Islam are firmly committed to the spreading of the Islamic idealogy to the entire world by any means. The deprivations described by Bush are as much a product of Islam as the product of the tyrannical leaders and I have some doubt that Democracy with its implicit freedoms can overcome the ideologies of Islam that demand the denial of most personal liberties.

This is certainly a step in the right direction but really after 9/11 there was no other choice. However, there is still the notion that Islam is a religion of peace which flies into the face of reality. There are many in the world that still believe that Islam can be accepted as an equal to other religions re: religious tolerance. This I believe is also an extremely dangerous attitude to take with a religion that has proven itself time and time again to be intolerant of all other beliefs.

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