So when I saw he wrote a column today about the bombings in London with his take on the solution, I immediately read it. Friedman makes some great points -- namely that it's up to the silent majority of moderate Muslims to step up and condemn the radical faction of Islam that continues to perform heinous acts. I completely agree.
Because there is no obvious target to retaliate against, and because there are not enough police to police every opening in an open society, either the Muslim world begins to really restrain, inhibit and denounce its own extremists - if it turns out that they are behind the London bombings - or the West is going to do it for them. And the West will do it in a rough, crude way - by simply shutting them out, denying them visas and making every Muslim in its midst guilty until proven innocent.
And because I think that would be a disaster, it is essential that the Muslim world wake up to the fact that it has a jihadist death cult in its midst. If it does not fight that death cult, that cancer, within its own body politic, it is going to infect Muslim-Western relations everywhere. Only the Muslim world can root out that death cult. It takes a village.
Check it out if you're interested. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/08/opinion/08friedman.html?hp
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Thanks for the link Derek. Another gem by Friedman. If the ultra-libs took some pages from his writings instead of blaming there political enemies in the US, the Dem party would be in much better shape. This passage stood out to me:
"The greatest restraint on human behavior is what a culture and a religion deem shameful. It is what the village and its religious and political elders say is wrong or not allowed. Many people said Palestinian suicide bombing was the spontaneous reaction of frustrated Palestinian youth. But when Palestinians decided that it was in their interest to have a cease-fire with Israel, those bombings stopped cold. The village said enough was enough.
The Muslim village has been derelict in condemning the madness of jihadist attacks. When Salman Rushdie wrote a controversial novel involving the prophet Muhammad, he was sentenced to death by the leader of Iran. To this day - to this day - no major Muslim cleric or religious body has ever issued a fatwa condemning Osama bin Laden."
It's also frustrating that because such a small % of radical Muslims in power have a grudge against the West, they refrain from condeming such acts and consequently give the other 1 billion plus decent hard-working Muslims around the globe a bad name.
PS have you read 'From Beirut to Jerusalem' by Friedman? It's great......and disturbing.
Hope everyone is doing well!
Exactly. It only takes a few bad apples...
I firmly believe that the one billion peace-loving Muslims in the world can provide the answer to the few among them that act viciously.
I haven't read that book. I will put it on my list as I really enjoy his perspective in his columns.
DR
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