London calling--long reply

[EVERETT813 at aol.com]

In a message dated 7/8/05 11:10:06 PM, chris.corrigan at gmail.com writes:


> I don't usually weigh in on stuff like this, and I'm sure others will tan 
> your hide for it, but Paul, I have to stand in front of the rash 
> generalizations you are making about "Muslims."
> 

Sorry, Chris, I don't regard those as "rash generalizations", Friedman is 
correct, NO high order Muslim from any Muslim nation has issued a fatwa on bin 
Laden and his followers.   By that I mean someone of the stature that issued the 
fatwa against Salman Rushdie for publishing a book they deemed defamed 
Muhammad.   The Muslim Islamic cleric leader of Iran.    

And, of course, you are correct.   There are millions of Muslims who abhor 
what is happening.   They want peace, too.   They want a life of freedom, 
economic security, etc., why else would they leave their repressive homelands to 
come to the Western nations?   Friedman's point (and mine) is unless IMPORTANT 
people of the leadership of Muslim nations start to speak out in loud, 
consistent tones that such is not part of the Koran (Ch. 5, v. 32; ch. 17, v. 33 
according to an Immam I heard on the news tonight) and their societies begin to 
isolate and negate these people, we are in for a very bad time, indeed.

You may be enlightened, but I will predict that if this goes on, and gets 
worse, large numbers of people will not be acting in an enlightened manner.   We 
all know about the 'tipping point'.   It happens in societies, too.   It CAN 
happen here. Imagine the reaction of even a very large minority to a WMD 
incident in a major Western nation.   It won't be pretty.

Finally, there is much that can be done to avoid Huntington's Thesis, but it 
takes a long time, a long time, and will take something along the line of 
Martin Luther's 95 Theses within Islam before we will see a genuine rapproachment 
between the globalizing West and the Islamic world.   I believe we need to see 
the world as it is, not as we wish it was, and take steps accordingly.

Sincerely,

Paul Everett

 

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