Daniel J. Pipes

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Political war, not religious

Reader comment on item: The Evil Isn't Islam

Submitted by Robert Boland (United States), Nov 24, 2004 at 19:53

As an Americam military member (who served in the recent Iraq war from Feb-Sep 2003) I am proud to be part of this long,painful process of needed change. While I see now that Islam can be a backward, oppressive religion, I am not against Muslims. I am against the concept of a State (mandatory) religion.

But political Islam can't function with separation of church and state. They need the state to enforce their oppressive ideals. Nobody would accept the ideals of that religion without being forced to.

Of course, American Muslims think Islam is great. Why? They can practice it on their own terms, while actually living in a free, open society. Every Muslim in the motherland wishes they could live like that. So America's "war on Terrorism" is just that, a military/political war. If it's religious to the Muslims, that's their perspective.

We hear that these terrorists don't represent "true" Islam, but yet don't hear too many moderate Muslims complain about the insurgents' actions. Thus, if most of the terrorists represent Islam, then they are a threat to the free world.

What scares me is how quickly moderate Muslims can switch to violent fundamentalists. But that's all part of the plan. They can't put people to the sword in America and Europe, so they have to be subtle. This will all get better before it gets worse, I think.

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 and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

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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 and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

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