“Islamism – not Islam – is responsible for terrorism”…
A few days ago, I came across this interview of Daniel Pipes on the newly launched “Lokmanch” by Amitabh Tripathi. It is his first-ever interview with any Indian journalist.
Some excerpts: “…Q: Several apologists and leftists across the world had their argument that Arab-Israel conflict is pivotal to phenomenon of Islamic terrorism; once this conflict is resolved there would be no terrorism? How do you take this argument?
Q: The term “Islamism” has been your favorite term to elaborate the subject of Islamic terrorism, being an expert of Islamic politics how do you define term “Islamism”?
DP: It is the effort, based on the idea that whatever the question, �Islam� is the solution, to impose a totalitarian version of Islam on the entire world…
Q:� In some of your article you have categorically stated that it is Islamism – not religion Islam as a whole – is responsible for terrorism, how could you differentiate Islamism with religion Islam when both of them have equal respect for Shari at, vision of Khilafat and theology of Islam?
DP: The religion of Islam goes back nearly 1,400 years; although terrorism was an intermittent problem during that long era (think of the medieval Assassins), Islam has not historically been associated with terrorism.”
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Read the interview in full here: “Lokmanch par Daniel Pipes“
I am also convinced that Islamism should be targeted and focus should be to make pressure on Muslims to modernise themselves as well amendement in their theology .
*** Comment Edited ***
May be Danial Pipes has not studied Muslim invadors in India prior to British. Wasn’t that terrorism?
Islamism term is coined out of fear at the same time to gather publicity.
*** NOTE by MODERATOR ***
Nanda: Thanks for your comment but please try and avoid generalisations and blanket condemnation. Thanks.
Daniel Pipes,
Why don’t you call spade a spade? Do you recognize What Muhammad did was terrorism? if so, how could you say Islam as whole is not the problem, but Islamism is the problem.
Media censors Jihadi Violence in Mysore
http://www.haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?PageID=8505&SKIN=B
*** COMMENT EDITED ***
Details are here. Media has hardly covered it…
http://mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=broadcast&broadcastid=118985
*** NOTE by MODERATOR ***
Pl. refrain from abusing any faith. I would urge everyone to exercise restraint in their use if words – particularly in view of recent developments. I hope you understand.
*** Comment moved here ***
If I am doing some wrong, I think, I can say that my hand is doing it and I am not to be blamed. If I abuse anybody I can plead too that my tongue is responsible and I am personally not responsible.
Can one stand without the other. Why this quibbling ? Everybody is afraid to call a spade a spade.
Oh, BTW, the Catholic Secular Forum (sic!) is planning to also protest the release of movie Angels and Demons in India, which is based on Dan Brown’s book of the same name.
And, they are very proud of the fact that they delayed the release of “The DaVinci Code” in India – only nation where christian protests delayed the release.
And, they are lobbying the Indian govt to pass an anti-blasphemy (sic) law so that faith is not insulted.
They can join the Islamic countries here:
http://www.secularism.org.uk/defamation-of-religion-passes-at.html
and the other folks on this blog bleating about insult to their religion, Hinduism.
Have fun, all ye children of faith.
Cheers
Quote of the Week
“The Pope is either stupid, ignorant or wickedâ€
(Richard Dawkins, in a speech during his investment honoris causa at the University of Valencia)
Source: National Secular Society, UK
(I guess this was with reference to his condom remarks)
Cheers
@Patriot. Are Hindus offended because their religoius faith is insulted or that the laws of free speech are applied so unequally against them? I thought that the reason so many Hindus are offended is because they see their right to free speech is continually being eroded to pander to minority sentiments whereas all and sundry can “insult” Hinduism.
@Patriot,
The issue is not one of who protests over what – ideally freedom of expression/speech guarantees that, but the issue is different yardsticks applied to different religious groups.
Just as you may disagree with people of faith and their reasons to protest, I may similarly disagree with the people of leftist faith (Marx is our god) and their reasons to protest over issues they protest over. But why should it bother me if leftists want to protest over an issue which I think is silly? Should I tell them to cool it just because I disagree with their (in my opinion) illogical analysis and their mistaken world-view? Who is to decide on what needs a protest and what doesn’t? That’s best left to individuals to decide. If someone is offended by nude pictures painted by M. F. Husain, that Hindu as as much right to protest (but not to resort to violence), as has a Hindu, who is not offended, to not protest. But when the second Hindu tells the first Hindu that he shouldn’t be offended, that’s problematic for two reasons – the second Hindu is applying his standards to the first instead of letting that Hindu use his standards, and the second Hindu is assuming that he is the only person to decide what should and shouldn’t be offensive to all Hindus, when Hinduism doesn’t have any such central authority.
The state and media need to have one standard for all instead of giving one community the right to be offended and taking action to please them, and telling the other community that they shouldn’t be offended – that is the key issue here, since we live in a secular democracy where all citizens are equal. What’s more surprising to me is that it’s the leftists, who usually have an egalitarian view of the society and shout slogans of equality, are the ones promoting this inequality. Go figure.
@Kaffir: The MSM and the so called Seculars (of the Indian variety) have set certain standards for hindus (hindus only) like the BIS/ISI (if you want you can safely assume it is the Pakistani ISI). So a hindu, if he is slapped on one side of his face, he has to show the other side too. Then the assaulter feels that this stupid hindu is game and the rest becomes history. After all MSM and the seculars think that hindus should belong to history.
DP!
Please don’t do this. I am struggling to understand what you are saying here. Differentiating between Islam and Islamism. btw who was the founder of the latter? DP?
KSV Subramanian,
Yes, the media bias should become clear to anyone who is honest and looks at these issues and their reporting objectively. Unfortunately, our education system (English, western-centric) makes this task more difficult than it should be, and it requires extra effort. But we have to keep on trying and keep pointing out such biases.
Courtesy kk, this quote from Tackling extremism By Maajid Nawaz:
I didn’t notice that subtle message about Islamism!
This erupting chaos in mainland pak makes me uneasy. Coupled with increasing appetite of pakis for conspiracy theories and hatred for India/US (as pointed out constantly by saner voices of Nadeem Paracha, Fasi Zaka, Irfan Hussain, Parvez Hoodbhoy , Hassan Nisar etc), I just hope that Indian defense-think-tanks are prepared for this crap spalshes into our face.
At the risk of sounding paranoid, but watch this “defense analyst’s” latest stuff: Zaid Hamid Exposing Plans of America and India about WAR ON PAKISTAN
Dictator in the making Or working for future President Gen. Hamid Gul or just a barking dog? Only time will tell.