Integrity?

Submitted by JRM (Canada), Feb 2, 2007 at 16:47

Mr. Pipes is trying to believe a contradiction. He says,

The third feature is that this is totalitarian in nature. It turns Islam from a personal faith into an ideology, into an ism. It is the transformation of a personal faith into a system for ordering power and wealth. Radical Islam derives from Islam but is an anti-modern, millenarian, misanthropic, misogynist, anti-Christian, anti-Semitic, triumphalist, jihadistic, terroristic, and suicidal version of it. It is Islamic-flavored totalitarianism.

This amounts to a denial that one relies on his personal philosophy (of which religion is one type) - his metaphysics, epistemology and ethics, whether held explicitly or only implicitly - in choosing how to act. Indeed, it is integrity to base practice on principle, whether religious or secular.

He doesn't see that persuasion -- reason from facts -- is the only peaceful means amongst people; that faith leaves no room for peaceful discussion, because there's no factual base to agree on. Of course his denial of the personal in "ism" is because he doesn't want to condemn religion and faith. He won't admit that religious principles -- practiced consistently -- have the inevitable result of violent tactics.

His stance gives the implicit message: don't take ideas -- religion, principles, ideology -- seriously; compartmentalize your principles and don't act on their logical implications. That message will be taken by the unwary, both religious and secular alike. This is how the fallacy of a necessary dichotomy between principles and practice is spread.

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