The cleric wars
Robert Spencer:
...
"Day after day, all around the world, evidence mounts that Islamic radicalism is a cleric-driven phenomenon. The radical Islam that inspired the destruction of the World Trade Center and innumerable other terrorist attacks around the world is born in the theological arguments used by Islamic teachers in mosques and madrassas. All this is yet more evidence of the hollowness of the still-prevailing view that Islamic radicals are a tiny minority that has 'hijacked' the religion. One would think, from listening to some Muslim spokesmen in America, that all these clerics' immersion in the Koran would calm their souls and make them tolerant, peaceful individuals. The fact that just the opposite is happening — on a global scale — is still a taboo subject in most of the American media, and certainly unspeakable in Western Europe. Conservative and liberal media outlets alike would prefer on the whole to pretend that this is all just an accident, that given the right circumstances there could be Christian terrorist groups around the world waging war in the name of their religion, and that to scrutinize the role of Islam in all this is somehow racist.
"In fact, however, such a view, as common as it is, does a grave disservice to Muslims as well as nonMuslims, and leaves analysts with a huge blind spot in evaluating the true dimensions of the threat from jihadist groups. It is no more bigoted to say that there are elements of Islam in need of reform than it would be bigoted to point out that American Catholicism needs to undergo a period of introspection and change in the wake of the priest scandals.
"That elements of Islam are being used by terrorists as recruitment tools should by now be obvious to any person of good will. In light of this it should be the highest priority of self-proclaimed moderate Muslim groups to formulate a comprehensive internal response to this phenomenon: to root out these elements of Islam and to teach Muslims, not nonMuslims, that this form of Islam must be relegated to the history books once and for all."
Robert Spencer:
...
"Day after day, all around the world, evidence mounts that Islamic radicalism is a cleric-driven phenomenon. The radical Islam that inspired the destruction of the World Trade Center and innumerable other terrorist attacks around the world is born in the theological arguments used by Islamic teachers in mosques and madrassas. All this is yet more evidence of the hollowness of the still-prevailing view that Islamic radicals are a tiny minority that has 'hijacked' the religion. One would think, from listening to some Muslim spokesmen in America, that all these clerics' immersion in the Koran would calm their souls and make them tolerant, peaceful individuals. The fact that just the opposite is happening — on a global scale — is still a taboo subject in most of the American media, and certainly unspeakable in Western Europe. Conservative and liberal media outlets alike would prefer on the whole to pretend that this is all just an accident, that given the right circumstances there could be Christian terrorist groups around the world waging war in the name of their religion, and that to scrutinize the role of Islam in all this is somehow racist.
"In fact, however, such a view, as common as it is, does a grave disservice to Muslims as well as nonMuslims, and leaves analysts with a huge blind spot in evaluating the true dimensions of the threat from jihadist groups. It is no more bigoted to say that there are elements of Islam in need of reform than it would be bigoted to point out that American Catholicism needs to undergo a period of introspection and change in the wake of the priest scandals.
"That elements of Islam are being used by terrorists as recruitment tools should by now be obvious to any person of good will. In light of this it should be the highest priority of self-proclaimed moderate Muslim groups to formulate a comprehensive internal response to this phenomenon: to root out these elements of Islam and to teach Muslims, not nonMuslims, that this form of Islam must be relegated to the history books once and for all."
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