Nothing to be astonished about

Submitted by Sanchez (United States), Feb 5, 2007 at 20:28

Here is a snippet from the interview:

"PIPES: Oh, very. These are not seedy little mosques somewhere in the hands of extremists. These are the most important mosques in Britain that are being represented, some of the most important preachers. This is astonishing. Really, I've watched this whole documentary, and I was struck by two things that I might point out. One is the utter extremism of what these preachers are saying."

Dr Pipes, why do you find this "astonishing"? There really isn't any difference between radical and regular Islam. The problem with your distinction between "radical" Islam and mainstream Islam is that it accentuates a needless falsehood that there exists an Islam that is vastly different from the "radical" version. This is not true and is a reason for your astonishment that a mainstream mosque can have such preachers.

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