To Dr. Pipes: what's your current opinion on this?

Reader comment on item: The Jewish-Muslim Connection: Traditional Ways of Life

Submitted by Farid H. (Germany), Apr 16, 2006 at 11:53

Dear Dr. Pipes,

anyone who hadn't read this 1981 (!) article, definitely missed out a gem of extremely pertinent and lucid analysis! Kudos for this one: you were absolutely 100% right here; at least when you wrote it back then, and IMHO it's still true today.

Now, a quarter century later, this analysis is even more pertinent that even before. A lot has changed since Iran's so called "Islamic Revolution", the rising of radical islamism, and recently, in its even more perverted form: global islamistic terrorism. But a lot is still the same. Could this very sameness help bridge the gap or at least build a bridge between Jews and Muslims once again, on a more than just (all too rare) interpersonal friendships? I sure hope so, no matter how bleak the outlook on our current world appears.

I'd love to read your current opinion on this. Are your views w.r.t. this article, still the same, and if not, what has changed in your eyes since then?

Kind regards.
Farid.

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Daniel Pipes replies:

Thank you for your kind comments. My opinions remain the same.

I'd just note that whereas 25 years ago I wrote, "Traditional Jewish and Muslim ways of life have not fared well in recent times," the law has flourished in both Jewish and Muslim communities in recent decades.