Yes, This is about Islam

New York Times ^ | Nov 02, 2001 | Salman Rushdie

[AgThorn]

Ah, good old Rushdie ...
I was thinking about buying his book just this morning.

Wonder if I can get it on Amazon.com and if the Ayatollah still has a price on his head?

Hope his sales go up ...

[GOPJ]

The democrats are mad because they haven't had a new idea in 40 years. But the Muslims are madder, they haven't had a new idea in over a hundred years. Rage has a way of building when you accept you're a failure, or you redouble your blind faith.

Poor Muslims, they're worse off than democrats.

[EggsAckley]

Thanks for posting this. It provides a great deal of insight into the "Islam-mania" that
is flooding the world at the moment. It also gives me some hope that some of the Muslim
faith MAY be ready to reform the archaic radical elements of Islam and join the real world.

[ex-Texan]

Islamic leaders and clerics risk death by saying even a single word of moderate praise for Rushdie ....

The Taliban [so-called "Students of God" ... B.S. !!] are so vile that they must all be wiped off the planet.

Justice = KAAAABOOOOOM!

Sorry, but that is just the way I see it.

[etcetera]

"Many commentators have spoken of the need for a Reformation in the Muslim world."

Finally a glimpse of hope from the Muslims themselves.

[meenie]

There is something wrong when we have so many Muslims in our country without making any staements condemning the terrorists actions. I think that there are some moderate Muslims but they are cowed by the overwhelming majority of fanatic Muslims and the terror they can inflict. This is an ominous sign of the numbers, even in our country, of fanatic Muslims.

[Howlin]

It also gives me some hope that some of the Muslim faith MAY be ready to reform the archaic radical elements of Islam and join the real world.

Why would you think that? Where are the MODERATE Muslims? Have you heard any of them condemning OBL?

[Big Bunyip]

If you're going to buy one of his books, "Midnight's Children" is by far and away the best.

The odd thing is, a few years on BBC2, he did a monologue in which he hailed the unease that the muslim/third world influx into Britain was inspiring among Anglo-Saxons. It was the chickens of colonialism coming home to roost, and the Brits had no right to complain about mosques and strange cultures invading their High Street shopping centers.

All very righteous and politically correct. Now his tune has changed.

I guess having a price put on your head by a bunch of camel-scented clerics from the dark ages can help a man to concentrate on the important things in life -- things like just staying alive.

[Helms]

it would be absurd to deny that this self-exculpatory, paranoiac Islam is an ideology with widespread appeal.

[EggsAckley]

I actually have heard a number of American Muslims expressing outrage over bin Laden's perversion of their religion. Not enough, granted, and not very high profile. But at least Rushdie proves that there are Muslims who are not nut-cases like bin Laden. If they want to keep Islam alive, then they MUST reform it and remove all the nonsensical, violent, and hateful rhetoric from it.

[AgThorn]

Bears repeating ... here's the cliff notes version!
Suppose we say that the ills of our societies are not primarily America's fault,
that we are to blame for our own failings?
How would we understand them then?
Might we not, by accepting our own responsibility for our problems, begin to learn to solve them for ourselves?

An Iraqi writer quotes an earlier Iraqi satirist:
"The disease that is in us, is from us."

A British Muslim writes, "Islam has become its own enemy."

A Lebanese friend, returning from Beirut, tells me that in the aftermath of the attacks on Sept. 11, public criticism of Islamism has become much more outspoken.

Many commentators have spoken of the
need for a Reformation in the Muslim world.

 

[Howlin]

Well, maybe I'm only seeing the "squeaky wheels," you know? But even Fred Barnes was screaming on Fox last night about somebody needing to speak up.

[Map Kernow]

Saying ad nauseam that "This isn't about Islam" simply means we haven't got a genuine dialogue going with the Muslim world. Most of them would absolutely insist that this terrorism conflict is all about Islam. It's just easier and less unsettling for us in the liberal, self-absorbed West to foist our own preconceptions and prejudices on Muslim opinion, even while claiming to act in the name of "tolerance," rather than listening to what Muslims really have to say on the subject.

[Anamensis]

It also gives me some hope that some of the Muslim faith MAY be ready to reform the archaic radical elements of Islam and join the real world.

I really need to hear more voices like this from the Muslim world because I am fast growing to hate them every bit as violently and thoroughly as they hate us. Since 9/11, I have fantasies of being able to push a button that would kill every last one of them, from the Nation of Islam types here, to Africa, the Middle East, Indonesia, etc. All of them. Women, children, elders, everyone. I hate them that much. It's sad to admit this, and I don't want to feel that way. But I need a little help from the Rushies of the world or this will eventually solidify and I'll be able to look upon suffering of the worst kind and feel nothing. And I really suspect that's not good for me.

[gone_to_heck_back_soon]

Here's hoping the Taliban go the way of all Inquisitions. GONE.

I just hope another "ism" isn't the result in the West.

[Praxeologue]

I find it difficult to derive any hope from the moderate opinions of a Muslim who would be shot on sight by a huge proportion, perhaps half, of the Muslim world.

What, pray tell, could be characterized as a "mainstream" Muslim position? I fear that the answer would not be pleasant.

I agree and sympathize with Rushdie, but believe that he speaks, as of today, for a small minority.

In times of horrific terrorist danger, we must act on today's reality, not idealistic hopes.

[Shermy]

Rushdie called Islam, "that least huggable of faiths."

---S.Rushdie, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Henry Holt: New York, 1999. p.74

[Praxeologue]

it would be absurd to deny that this self-exculpatory, paranoiac Islam is an ideology with widespread appeal

... spoken like someone who understands political movements