[expatpat]

What's his point?

[ClaireSolt]

So many of these guys are just flat out liars. I can't be bothered. It is the bahavior I see that I deplore, and I don't care about suras.

[the anti-liberal]

Point?

I think he's just pointing out the obvious:

The effort to moderate the conflict between cultures, by enabling rational voices on both sides of the divide to be heard, appears doomed. The opinions of the informed and sensible will continue to be drowned out by the witticisms of those proud of their ignorance and cynicism; the most subtle and obscure issues will be transformed into mass-market products for the consumption of lumpen intellectuals. The religious instinct toward meditation, withdrawal from the noise of the world, and refinement of spirituality will be crushed in the chaos of rhetoric.

[outdriving]

His point seems to be:

1.) Christians are (were?) worse than Muslims about forced conversion.

2.) They have no right to criticize Islam.

3.) But they (Christians) have the right to express opinions, as long as they don't upset Muslims.

What he does not address, of course, is the irrational and violent reaction of his co-religionists to the Pope, the Danish Cartoons, Salman Rushdie, ETC.

If he cares to defend the sensitivities of Muslims to Western style free speech, which is the only system that would publish or tolerate his criticism of Christianity.

Why in the world should the West tolerate the immigration or even the presence of those who ascribe to his point of view.

I'm holding my breath.....

[Nicholas Conradin]

What's his point?

Thank you all very much for your comments about this article. To elicit responses such as these were my reason for posting it.

[Steve_Seattle]

"What's his point?"

His point is, "I'm smarter than you because I've studied Islam and I am an initiate into a Sufi order, therefore everything you say about Islam is incomplete and wrong and biased and stupid, and only I have the properly nuanced understanding of Islam to make intelligent remarks on the subject." He's an intellectual snob.