John Derbyshire has a great piece on why Islam is not the enemy in the war on terror. We’re not fighting Muslims in general, just a particular version of Islam that encourages violence and terrorism.
Not to pander to cultural relativism, but if we are to judge solely on scriptural exhortations, the Old Testament is equally regressive as the Qu’ran. Yet we’re not seeing a rash of Jewish suicide bombers. There are sects of Christianity that teach hatred for other races and religions as well.
The difference is that most Christians aren’t going off and randomly killing Muslims just for the fact that they’re Muslims. Most Christians agree with Mr. Derbyshire that Islam is not the enemy.
Unfortunately, the Muslim world isn’t so generous. There’s a shocking number of Muslims who believe that Jews and Christians are the enemy. That’s what we’re fighting against. It’s time for Muslim leaders to start dealing with this terror and stopping the hatred by preaching peace. Many Muslim leaders are doing just that, but many are not.
This shouldn’t become a war against Islam, this is a war for Islam. This is a war that should bring about significant soul-searching among Muslims. If Islam is to survive as a world religion, it needs to embrace the modern world and eschew the kind of radicalism that now poisons the chosen religion of one third of the world. The radicals would see Islam burn in a suicidal attack against the rest of the world then actually attempt to improve the world. Until even more Muslims of compassion and character step forward to combat fundamentalism and terrorism, the very future of Islam itself stands at a precipice.
