Big Think

peter pedant commented on David Maine: U.S. Misperceptions of Pakistan and Islam on October 7, 2008, 1:14 PM

What about Islamic jihad activities in Dagestan Russian province, Nigeria, Kashmir Indo/Pak region, China Xinjiang Uighur Region, Thailand Southern Thailand, Chechnya Russian province, Somalia, Sudan Darfur Region, Sudan North & South Regions, Ivory Coast, Philippines, Indonesia, Turkey/Greece, Kosovo, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia Island of Maluku, and Chad Eritrea? Are they all due to American policy too?You are also mistakenly comparing fundamental Christians to fundamental Muslims. The comparison is not really legitimate. I have found that linking Bible quotations with real political events and acts of violence produced an insufficient basis for a valid comparison at all. I would welcome any further studies conducted in this area though.You have dismissed any concern because of low percentage figures. The pew research foundation did a survey a little while ago of Muslims Worldwide and found that only about 7% agree with the application of the hard core doctrine of Islam, the Quran and Muhammads teachings. Thats around 91.000.000 people, greater than the entire population of Nazi Germany in the 1930's and we all know how much trouble they caused.In 1917, only 3% of Russians were communists. And yet they took over that country. In 1924 only 3% of Germans were Nazis. They took over that country too. And as a result of what they did 55 Million people died.The lesson of history is, that if an ideology or a doctrine is ruthless enough and if the adherents are willing to act as terrorists, a 3% minority will dominate and control politically any country.Dr. Tawfik Hamid is a rare individual. He was once a member of Egypt's Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya and trained under al-Quaeda's Ayman al-Zawahiri in ways to defeat the West. He also holds letters of reference from leaders of some of the Western world's most prominent intelligence organizations. Dr. Hamid is now preaching a warning of what he calls Muslim imperialism. He argues that fundamental Islam is in fact, the majority view of Islam. This is not to say that the majority are terrorists but that the majority have extremest fundamentalist views, Either to do with homosexuality, Christians and Jews, Women etc and Terrorism. Further, he makes the case that sexual frustration is the underlying basis of the entire movement and points to differences in Shi'ite and Sunni belief to highlight his hypothesis.I%u2019d also like to highlight some very disturbing polling data released April 24, 2007 from a rigorous face-to-face University of Maryland/ WorldPublicOpinion.org interview survey. Of the 4,384 Muslims interviewed between December 9, 2006 and February 15, 2007 %u2013 1,000 Moroccans, 1,000 Egyptians, 1,243 Pakistanis, and 1,141 Indonesians%u201465.2%, almost 2/3, hardly a %u201Cfringe minority%u201D %u2013 desired this outcome: %u201CTo unify all Islamic countries into a single Islamic state or Caliphate,%u201D including 49% of %u201Cmoderate%u201D Indonesian Muslims. The internal validity of these data about the present longing for a Caliphate is strongly suggested by a concordant result: 65.5% of this Muslim sample approved the proposition %u201CTo require a strict [emphasis added] application of Sharia law in every Islamic country.%u201D Moreover, an earlier survey of British Muslims indicated that up to 40% of them wished to replace Britain%u2019s current liberal democratic system with the Sharia.

peter pedant commented on Where are we? on October 7, 2008, 12:30 PM

Is it actually possible to reform Islam given that this would require tampering and corrupting the perfect Qur'an? This book is beyond criticism to Muslims and admitting that there are errors that need changing would be unthinkable?