[goldstategop]

The problem with Pipes' approach is that Islam is par excellence a religion of the sword. It has subjugated, destroyed and smashed into oblivion pre-Islamic cultures wherever it conquered. And afterwards any peoples not forcibly converted to Islam where treated as minorities complelled to live in a state of humiliation and degradation whose lives were in ever present threat of extinction and to whom anything could be done by their Muslim overlords. If Islam had its equivalent of the Reformation, the above unpleasant facts would not matter, but since it is unreformed, hostile, xenophobic and totalitarian and willing to employ even the most extreme means of disposing of its adversaries the above facts about the religion are central to confronting it. An important correction to Pipes' treatment of Islam can be found in Bat Yeor's Islam And Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide. Only if Islam's dark side is apprehended will it be possible to convert a savage foe into a civilized culture capable of dwelling in harmony with the rest of the world.

[TheConservator]

Islam is more or less exactly where Christianity was 1350 years after its founding.

[weegee]

From Ask The Imam last year: Is Osamah bin Laden is really a hero of Islamic Ummah? Do Taliban government of Afghanistan done right by demolishing the Buddah statues?

1. Usama ibn Laden is a practising Muslim, and thus, our brother in Islam. He has made many sacrifices for the Deen, in particular, the Jihaad of Afghanistan. While we respect him for this, we do not raise any person to any position, except that which Allah Ta'ala wishes.

2. He himself has denied involvement. Why should we then doubt him? Even if a billion Kuffaar say the opposite, the word of a single practising Muslim is more acceptable to us.

3. It was an Islamic duty for the Taliban to have destroyed the idols.

Don't think that they respect our Christian monuments/sites/buildings/etc. any more than the Buddahs.

Remember that hostage situation at the Church of the Nativity?