Daniel J. Pipes

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Does singling out Muslims for additional scrutiny serve a purpose? And if so, is it legally and morally acceptable?

Reader comment on item: The Enemy Within [and the Need for Profiling]

Submitted by Steve Beinart (United States), Jan 24, 2003 at 09:44

"The agonizing question: Does singling out Muslims for additional scrutiny serve a purpose? And if so, is it legally and morally acceptable?"

This is only an agonizing question if one considers Islam a religion. However, Militant Islam is NOT in fact a religion. Militant Islam is a political party purporting to be a religion.

This makes a big difference. Would anyone reasonable consider it "discriminatory" to be anti-communist? Or anti-Nazi? Or anti-Shinto? Of course not. Because it is completely moral to be against an evil political movement. Same thing with militant Islam.

Consider: militant Islam specifies laws, punishments, and requirements for war. All things that governments and political parties do.

Again, the concept to remember is: Militant Islam is NOT in fact a religion. Militant Islam is a political party purporting to be a religion.

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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