You are being very kind to Islamic expansionists

Submitted by Rajeev (United States), Jan 26, 2011 at 02:00

Dear Dr Pipes,

Your explanation how the myth of Al-Aqsa led to Islamic claim on Jerusalem could be quite correct but you are being very kind to Islamic expansionists. In reality, Islamists truly believe thet they have to win the entire planet for the cause of Allah. They do not need any pretext to claim everything. To them the very fact that their religion contains the last, best and final message is enough to claim the planet. All historical facts or fictions, doings or undoings, and myths or beliefs are just icing on the cake. Consider the example of the mosque in Ayodhya in India about which you wrote several years ago. A brutal Central Asian conqueror in fifteenth century who according to wikipedia had nine wifes at different times of his life and who liked to make piles of decapitated heads, made a mosque at one of the most sacred hindu towns in India. He had no pretext for doing so and there is no myth to defend his actions. But Muslims of today --in India and everywhere else-- still believe that the mosque in Ayodhya is essential for the survival of Islam in India and every where else. If a little mosque in a small infidel town can be so essential for Islamic survival, just imagine how important the mosque in Jerusalem will be! So even if the story of Al Aqsa is a myth, the claim of Islamists on Jerusalem is undeniable.

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