Submitted by Tordjman , Victor (Israel), Feb 3, 2009 at 08:00
The article by Daniel Pipes written in the fall of 1984 was very clearsighted and his analysis perfect for the foreseeable future. 25 years later, we are in another world and the most striking feature of change in the whole world but mainly in the ME is the extreme radicalization that has spread out like a bushfire all through what is commonly called the Islamic World.
This religion-based ideology, the seeds of which have been there , dormant, for as long as Islam existed, was not so clearly perceived while other preoccupations masked its inherent dangers to world-civilization. But even then, long before 9/11 when Left and Right were still notions with content, the divide between them did not run through the Arab-Israel conflict. As if other rules applied to this particular confrontation. And today , we are witnessing the naked truth that DP has been sensing and warning against .
The open war , ideological and total, of Radical Islam against western values. We are way passed the theoretical, arguing, principled stage. Partisan, blind passion is the name of the game. The sole hope for a reversal of the trend resides in the very dim chance of a last phase reaction from inside Islam. Such a process, hoped for and advocated by DP, the longer it is being delayed the less probable it is to succeed and the more violent it would be. Such a Reform Movement would have to to extend over several generations and its inception would have to be probably initiated by a major cataclism hitting the imaginations of the islamic masses.
Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened for relevance, substance, and tone, and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome, but comments are rejected if scurrilous, off-topic, vulgar, ad hominem, or otherwise viewed as inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the Guidelines for Comments. For informational purposes, we identify countries from which comments are sent.
