Do we use a different yardstick to measure Islam? We should not.

Submitted by Prashant (United States), Feb 11, 2017 at 16:33

Dear Dr Pipes,

Many of your readers must have taken note of a recent statement of Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei. Ayatollah Khamenei said that Trump's campaign and presidency supported Iran's views that there is "political, economic, moral and social corruption in the U.S. ruling system." The Iranian leader also said that Trump showed the 'real face of the United States."

Khamenei's statement is the case of the pot calling a shining kettle black. Even at its worst US under Trump is a million times better than Iran or any other Islamic country. Human rights for even Muslim citizens of Islamic countries are non-existent or very poorly defined. Haman rights for non-Muslims in Islamic theocracies exists only in the fantasy of Muslims who quote select passages from Quran and some how lead themselves into believing that it is an OK situation if 'Muslims let non-muslims exist in the so called Islamic lands'. Anyone can see that there is no freedom of thought, freedom to vote, freedom to choose one's belief in the Islamic nations.

It does not surprise me if Khamenei cannot see that his society and country offer a third-grade place to live to any human and no non-Muslims will sensibly choose to make Iran his home. Islamists' logic after all is proven by circular reasoning ad infinitum: Islam is perfect because quran said so, quran is perfect because Muhammad said so, Muhammad is perfect because Allah said so, and Allah said so because quran said so etc etc.

What surprises me is that even non-Muslims have succumbed to not challenging Islam and Islamic apologists. I read the above statement of Khamenei in many media outlets including CNN and Time magazine. Not publication challenged Khamenei on what he said. These publications failed to say that a theocracy that offers no framework where non-Muslims can live as equal citizens has any business criticizing USA.

In my opinion not all nations are created equal. Theocracies must be considered inferior to the nations that separate church and estate. Non-democracies must be considered inferior to constitutional democracies. Before we win any war against fundamentalist Islam we need to state this truth as many times as possible and as assertively as possible.

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