Pipes says Westerners are “hostile” to the Koran

In an ever-changing, uncertain world, we should be grateful that some things never change, such as the majesty of the Rocky Mountains, or the pathetic confusion of “Islam expert” Daniel Pipes about the nature and doctrines of Islam.

A reader writes:

Regarding Churchill’s comparison of Mein Kampf to the Koran, Daniel Pipes writes:

I disagree with the comparison (and also reject the idea to ban Islam or the Koran), seeing this as counterproductive: it won’t happen and it need not, as Muslims’ understanding of their religion and scripture are potentially flexible. That said, the Churchill quote points to the undeniably deep-felt Western hostility to the Koran.

Don’t you just love that? Not only are Muslims’ understanding of their iron-clad scripture “potentially flexible” (for Pipes, it’s always potentially flexible despite all evidence to the contrary), but the West is “undeniably hostile” to the Koran. So we’re the aggressors! (Also, the word hostile has a very emotional connotation.) Good ol’ Pipes is at it again.

LA replies:

I believe that at bottom Pipes is unable to take the side of the West. When push comes to shove, his oft-expressed romantic empathy with Islam, combined with his hostility to historic Christendom because of its oppression of the Jews, a hostility he has repeatedly indicated through his idea that Islam was tolerant of the Jews while Christianity persecuted them (even though the opposite was often true, and even though anti-Semitism is intrinsic to Islam, which is not the case with Christianity), will lead him to side with Islam against the West. I don’t mean that he will necessarily become openly anti-Western, though his above stunning criticism of the West for its “hostility” to the Koran clearly suggests an anti-Western component in his thought (does this befuddled man actually expect Westerners to approve a book that commands the subjugation, death, and eternal torture of all non-Muslims?). I mean that he will continue to deny the real nature of Islam, even as its power in the West continues to grow.

I’ll be happy if I’m proven wrong. But Pipes’s repeated reversions to pro-Islamic apologetics make the prediction unavoidable. We can therefore expect that Pipes will keep to his career of attacking radical Muslim organizations, while welcoming Islam as such into the West and assuring Westerners that Islam can become the opposite of what it has always been.

Also, if the experience of the last three years is any guide, we can expect that he will continue not to be held to account for this by any bylined writers, except me.

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Here is a selection of my articles on Pipes since January 2005.

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N. writes:

What is remarkable to me about Pipes’s latest statement is how backwards it is. The Koran is hostile to the West, not the other way around. Furthermore, the Koran is hostile to the non-Moslem East, the non-Moslem South, the non-Moslem North…and thus a pattern ought to become clear.

Pipes’s Western-centric blinders apparently do not allow him to see that it is not just the West that is under attack, but also Indian Hindus, Thai Buddhists, African Pagans, Chinese atheists and every other culture that borders on the Islamic zone.

LA replies:

Yes, in this case he’s Western-centric and missing key things about Islam that not related to the West. In other contexts, he is Judeo-centric. Thus he comparatively judges medieval Christendom and medieval Islam solely on the basis of how the two civilizations supposedly treated the Jews. Since Islam supposedly treated the Jews better than the Christians did, he judges Islam as morally superior to Christianity. Not only does he ignore situations in which Islam treated Jews worse than Christians did, he ignores how Muslims treated Christians, how they treated Zoroastrians, how they treated Hindus, as well as the other groups you mention. His sole measure for determining the comparative goodness of Islam and Christianity is how they treated the Jews. And this Judeo-centric manner of judging Christianity and Islam has become the shared template for the entire West when thinking about Islam and Christianity.

Robert C. writes:

Pipes wants as multi-ethnic and multi-religious a U.S. as possible so that the dominant society cannot unite and persecute Jews. Hence he wants it both ways, lots of Muslims but Muslims who will be well-behaved, especially well-behaved toward Jews.

LA replies:

“Pipes wants as multi-ethnic and multi-religious a U.S. as possible so that the dominant society cannot unite and persecute Jews.”

I made that point about Jewish motivations in my FrontPage Magazine article, “Why Jews Welcome Moslems.”

But how could Pipes possibly expect Muslims to be well behaved toward Jews?

The whole white West is screwed up in its head. But, as the saying goes, Jews are like everyone else, only more so…

Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 24, 2008 07:43 PM | Send