Redefining jihad

Submitted by Alan Sullivan (United States), Nov 4, 2002 at 12:01

Dear Daniel Pipes,

Another impressively reasoned and argued piece.

I would like to add a small point.

Perhaps it is actually a good thing that Western academics and Moslem apologists are trying to redefine jihad. Though these individuals may be misguided or downright malevolent, they are publicizing an Islamic rationale for ending Islam's self-destructive confrontation with other faiths.

Other civilizations must share the planet with Islam, and vice versa. Islamists may dream of world dominion, but their ideas fail in practice, just as Communism did. I suspect Islam is about to undergo a reformation as wrenching as that of Christianity in Luther's day. It cannot come too soon. America could give the process a good push by destroying the Baath regime of Iraq and making a definitive break with the Saudi monarchy.

Alan Sullivan

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