Don't be delusional
Reader comment on item: War against Radical Islamists

Submitted by Sam Lahiri (United States), Jun 17, 2002 at 18:05

One of Osama Bin Laden's goals behind the Sep 11 strike was to cripple the financial system of US. We heard him boasting in one of the tapes that the US stock market had lost a few trillion dollars in terms of its market value after Sep 11. So, I take great pleasure in noting that Lou Dobbs, a well respected financial reporter and CNN moneyline anchor is trying to put things in perspective by setting the right tone for this war. I am deeply disappointed at the seeming distinction the two other guests 'Mr. Gerges' and 'Prof Deeb' were trying to make between 'radical Islamists' and 'Islamists'. As Dr Pipes rightly pointed out, a radical and a non radical Islamist have the same goal in mind. They both dream of a totalitarian Islamic world, which does not preclude the possibility that a non radical muslim will take up arms or take recourse to violent means whenever he or she thinks is strategically appropiate. Believing that they are two different breeds is self delusional and there is really a very thin line between the two.

I want to remind everybody that most of the hijackers from Sept 11 came into this country as students and looked pretty harmless from outside without any criminal past of any kind. It would have been difficult to fit them in a description of so called 'radical Islamists'. In the same way, some would probably seem more like an academic than befitting the description of a radical Islamist. How does one really finds out who is who ? - only by casting an wide net of intelligence. Weighing political correctness every step of the way, even in defining whom the war is against, would only take us down in this war aginst 'Islamists'.

---

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 for relevance, substance, and tone, and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome, but comments are rejected if scurrilous, off-topic, vulgar, ad hominem, or otherwise viewed as inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the Guidelines for Comments. For informational purposes, we identify countries from which comments are sent.