Comments on: Salman Rushdie On Islamic Reform

By: Paul Brinkley

Paul Brinkley — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 21:39:43 +0000

I believe – and this has a connection to my stance on US foreign policy – that a peaceful thing is a thing that won’t last long.

Better to inspect Islam for those parts that drive it to militancy, analyze them, and limit them. In other words, let Islam be a religion of peace that at the same time permits militancy when circumstances demand it.

And I agree, too, that this is for Muslims to work out, and to which Western civilization shall need to respond.

By: Joshua

Joshua — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 15:29:30 +0000

Full disclosure on my above post: View “c” is the one I find to be closest to the truth.

By: Joshua

Joshua — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 15:23:38 +0000

I am beginning to wonder whether it really matters what the “true” nature of Islam is. Depending on who you ask, Islam is:

a) a peaceful religion by nature that has been hijacked by militant fanatics on the fringes of the faith,

b) a militant religion by nature whose peaceful adherents are the ones on the fringes of the faith (or not of the faith at all, if the fanatics are to be believed), or

c) an originally militant religion that has since evolved into a more benign one over the centuries, with the fanatics looking to roll back that evolution and restore Islam’s militant character.

Whichever of these three views of Islam you may have, it still boils down to a conflict between a peace- and freedom-loving outlook on the religion and a militant/totalitarian outlook. In any case, we in the West need to come down on the side of the benign outlook and against the militant one – regardless of which one represents the “true” faith (which is not something for Western civilization to decide in the first place).

By: Justin Gardner

Justin Gardner — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 02:42:04 +0000

Well, it tells me that Islam is just as flawed as any other religion.. Therefore, you can’t really blame the religion and it teachings because the people practicing it have the ability to twist it and use it to get people to do their bidding. The same can be said for any other religion given a certain time and place. I just wish people on both sides could realize that and blame the extremist zealots, not the religion itself.

By: Icepick

Icepick — Sun, 07 Aug 2005 23:15:35 +0000

This passage in particular really made me think. — Justin Gardner

Which directions are your thoughts going? I really want to hear what others think about this topic.