Whose Islam?
Reader comment on item: [The RAND Corporation and] Fixing Islam

Submitted by Vijay Dandapani (United States), Apr 6, 2004 at 11:46

The salient point in the Rand study is not so much the compartmentalization of strains of Islam as the notion that incentives be provided to advance secular civic institutions. It is there that Western nations and most critically, the US has been nearly absent while arguably being actively complicit in the promotion of a pervasive nihilistic culture amongst so called allies Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. In the latter case, much has been written in the press about a profusion of Madrassas that offer an appallingly stilted and murderous worldview to its students. Also well documented, is the funding source for these "schools" - Saudi Arabia.

That Muslims are not averse to incentives can be gleaned from how they adapt to them in a liberal society like the US. There is an even longer history to that in India, which despite having the world's second largest Muslim population, has thus far bred not a single terrorist. Far from the widely believed notion of a dirigiste Islam, sufism, a locally developed strain of Islam, shows their ability to adapt and be tolerant.

While there is no quick fix for the problems posed by Muslim terrorists, the US, hampered by faustian bargains, chooses to ignore the real reasons for the spread terrorism mentioned above.

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