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"Is There Something Fundamentally Wrong with Muslim Society...?"
CNN ^ | 7 Sept 2004 | Paula Zahn Now

Posted on 09/08/2004 5:43:45 AM PDT by LTCJ

... With me now to take a closer look at Muslim reaction to Beslan, Fouad Ajami, director of Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University.

...

ZAHN: Let me pose that question.

...
ZAHN: Is there something fundamentally wrong with Muslim society that continues to spawn these terrorists?

AJAMI: Well, I think this is a question that's haunting ordinary Muslims. ... Ben Wedeman has done a good job giving you a sense of the responses in the Muslim world.

And there was this editorial in one of the leading papers in the Arab world, "Al Asharq Al-Awsat," where a very thoughtful Saudi commentator basically probed the question that you have put forth. Is there something wrong in the modern condition of Islam today? Is there something wrong in the Arab world itself?

ZAHN: Is there?

AJAMI: And I think there is something ... the one answer is to say, Islam is innocent of all this. The other answer is to say, well, look, we have to look very carefully at the conditions of modern Muslims today.

And that's what Sam Huntington once said when he described what he called the bloody borders of the Islamic world, that wherever Islam rubs up against other civilizations, there seems to be trouble. There is something problematic in the Muslim world today, which is the rise of these new preachers. They're not religious. They're actually terrorists...
unless Muslims, mainstream Muslims, ordinary Muslims, establishment Muslims, scholars, rulers, intellectuals and journalists, reclaim the faith, this faith, it has become an instrument of radicalism.

ZAHN: But what evidence have you seen that would suggest that any of those subsets you're talking about are willing to do that? ...

(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: beslan; culture; fouadajami; islam; muslimreaction; paulazahn; terror
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I ran across the repeat of this interview by Paula Zahn early this morning (originally aired at 8PM last night). I have to give CNN and Zahn credit - this was one of the most forthright statements on a major network of the question we all want addressed. And Mr. Ajami was relatively straightforward in his response.

Worth reading the transcript and the lead-in interview with Stephen Cohen, professor of Russian studies at New York University...

While I am doubtful of Mr. Ajami's assessment that we might start to see a change in Islam resulting from the Beslan atrocity, part of his wrap-up is true:
"... And even though we talk about diplomacy and we talk about trying to win Muslim hearts and minds, this is a war for Muslims themselves. They must be the ones who weed these radicals out of the faith."

I think he sees it coming about through introspection. I behieve it it will come only as a means to relieve them of the consequences of harboring terrorists. If, that is, we are willing to wage a war worthy of the name. So far, there are a lot of questions lacking honest answers on both sides of the line...

1 posted on 09/08/2004 5:43:46 AM PDT by LTCJ
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To: LTCJ

Other than Islam being a cult of Satan...


2 posted on 09/08/2004 5:45:41 AM PDT by gunnygail (Founding member of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. (I fly the black helo):.)
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To: LTCJ

Is water wet?


3 posted on 09/08/2004 5:45:47 AM PDT by Straight Vermonter (http://www.angelfire.com/ultra/terroristscorecard)
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To: Straight Vermonter

when i was a kid I sold empty packets of "dehyrdated H2O - just add water".


4 posted on 09/08/2004 5:48:44 AM PDT by camle (keep your mind open and somebody will fill it with something for you))
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To: LTCJ

Other than it's based on a barbarous, warrior cult...NO!


5 posted on 09/08/2004 5:49:47 AM PDT by evad (We cannot afford 9-10 thinkers in a 9-11 world)
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To: LTCJ

There is something wrong with the Muslim society only if you believe it is a problem that they like to KILL EVERYBODY ELSE! Heck they even enjoy dying and killing each other.

Yeah, it's a problem. But, it's a problem we can solve by helping to, um... expedite THEIR desire for death.


6 posted on 09/08/2004 5:49:58 AM PDT by Types_with_Fist (God Bless Ronald Reagan!)
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To: gunnygail
When your water comes out of a poison well.....adding distilled water to your particular glass
only gets you diluted poison...

imo

7 posted on 09/08/2004 5:50:43 AM PDT by joesnuffy (Moderate Islam Is For Dilettantes)
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To: Types_with_Fist
expedite THEIR desire for death

For "the children", of course. :-)

8 posted on 09/08/2004 5:51:28 AM PDT by Puppage (You may disagree with what I have to say, but I shall defend to your death my right to say it)
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To: Puppage
Islamic hate in the Quran:

Qur’an 9:5 “Fight and kill the disbelievers wherever you find them, take them captive, harass them, lie in wait and ambush them using every stratagem of war.”

Bukhari:V4B52N50“The Prophet said, ‘A single endeavor of fighting in Allah’s Cause is better than the world and whatever is in it.’”

Qur’an 9:112 “The Believers fight in Allah’s Cause, they slay and are slain, kill and are killed.”

Qur’an 9:29 “Fight those who do not believe until they all surrender, paying the protective tax in submission.”

Qur’an 8:39 “Fight them until all opposition ends and all submit to Allah.”

Qur’an 8:39“So fight them until there is no more Fitnah (disbelief [non-Muslims]) and all submit to the religion of Allah alone (in the whole world).

DO NOT BELIEVE THAT THE MUSLUM RELIGION IS PEACEFUL, THAT IS HYPE. MUSLUMS WANT TO KILL US, PERIOD!

9 posted on 09/08/2004 5:52:43 AM PDT by Viet-Boat-Rider (((KERRY IS A NARCISSISTIC LIAR, GOLDBRICKER, AND TRAITOR!)))
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To: Puppage
For "the children", of course. :-)

Oh, but of course...:-)

Especially after what we've seen the past few days.

10 posted on 09/08/2004 5:53:34 AM PDT by Types_with_Fist (God Bless Ronald Reagan!)
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To: LTCJ

"...Islam is innocent of all this."

BS; Islam IS THE CAUSE OF ALL THIS, you Muslim schmuck!


11 posted on 09/08/2004 5:55:18 AM PDT by 7.62 x 51mm (• Veni • Vidi • Vino • Visa • "I came, I saw, I drank wine, I shopped")
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To: LTCJ
... unless Muslims, mainstream Muslims, ordinary Muslims, establishment Muslims, scholars, rulers, intellectuals and journalists, reclaim the faith, this faith, it has become an instrument of radicalism.

The question that keeps troubling me is that if the Imam of the Grand Mosque of Mecca, or the Imam of the Grand Mosque of Rome, do not represent and define Islamic "mainstream," "establishment," "scholars," "rulers," or "intellectuals," then who does?

If the Imam of the largest mosque in Europe calls for the slaughter of Jews and infidels, is that still "radical?" Or does it become "mainstream" when such a sermon is unabashedly broadcast to a million Muslims at a time?

12 posted on 09/08/2004 5:56:03 AM PDT by mvpel (Michael Pelletier)
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To: LTCJ
Repression may be one problem. A friend, who has throughly researched web dating sites in preparation to erecting one, and has talked with numerous women about their experience on web dating chat rooms, says there is a common and ubiquitous complaint among them.

Muslim men are arrogant in conversation, and, when a Muslim man can identify a chatter as a woman, he PM's (private message) her and immediately petitions for sex.

13 posted on 09/08/2004 5:56:16 AM PDT by William Terrell (Individuals can exist without government but government can't exist without individuals.)
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To: LTCJ

Is it stated anywhere in the Koran that killing those who believe differently is WRONG? If it is, why aren't those passages taught? If it isn't, that makes it a death cult and seals it's doom. Either Islam will succeed and the world will be a living hell or it will be annihilated because of it's unwillingness and inability to coexist.


14 posted on 09/08/2004 5:56:28 AM PDT by WestTexasWend
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To: LTCJ
The other answer is to say, well, look, we have to look very carefully at the conditions of modern Muslims today.

In other words, it's someone else's fault that Muslims live in poverty under the grinding heel of modern-day totalitarian monarchies and backwards theocracies, so their violence against others is excusable.

15 posted on 09/08/2004 5:57:32 AM PDT by mvpel (Michael Pelletier)
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To: Types_with_Fist
Especially after what we've seen the past few days

I am afraid you're right. Disgusting.

16 posted on 09/08/2004 5:58:08 AM PDT by Puppage (You may disagree with what I have to say, but I shall defend to your death my right to say it)
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To: evad

evad wrote:


Other than it's based on a barbarous, warrior cult...NO!

....................................................................................


Those aren't warriors.

Warriors have something they use for honor.

These are simply bloody-handed cowards and thugs with child-like minds.


17 posted on 09/08/2004 6:00:39 AM PDT by tiamat ("Just a Bronze-Age Gal, Trapped in a Techno-World!")
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To: LTCJ
we have to look very carefully at the conditions of modern Muslims today

And what causes the conditions of modern Muslims? Their pathetic ideology that promotes polygamy, selling and beating of women, an inability to think or reason. If Muslims reached their goal and placed the whole world under the Koran, conditions would be terrible --- but then who would they blame?

18 posted on 09/08/2004 6:01:00 AM PDT by FITZ
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To: LTCJ
Muslim Society

That's an oxymoron.

There ain't no such thing as a Muslim Society, just a bunch of cave dwellers driven by a tribal desire to kill, and be sacrificed in the name of their god (lowercase).

19 posted on 09/08/2004 6:03:47 AM PDT by aShepard
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To: Puppage

Is there something wrong with Islam? Nah, just pissing on children before they rape them and shoot them in the back, but we've got to be sensitive and understand them. Diversity!


20 posted on 09/08/2004 6:07:23 AM PDT by Wardawg (Hanoi John was here.)
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