Smart People : Stupid Choices -- Ali Sina's Response, Part 1

Dear Ali Sina,

I have read a great number of your articles.  I must say I support scholarly critique.  But the impression I get from you and your website is simply that if you follow Islam in anyway, specifically if you practice it peacefully the way the “untrue” Muslims do, they do not have a right to exist in the west period.  So if I brought to you a professor of philosophy and religion who supported Islam, would you call him stupid? This is not criticism, this is malicious attack.  I can respect logical criticism, but to just yell at people and tell them they are stupid and the book they believe in is stupid, seems very immature and unscholarly.  Based on what I’ve read you make a presupposed assumption: that all the Muslims that practice are these fundamentalists, but there is also a large number of “moderates” or as you call them “untrue” Muslims.  Is it really fair to call them stupid in debate? I remember in one instance you had a debate with a Muslim, who was actually an author.  He wrote a book on Islamic terrorism.  You seemed to respect him since he was a Muslim but admittedly opposed the Islamists in the middle east.  There are many like him, why attack taunt and ridicule them in such a hostile way? It seems the mutual respect is lost between two intellectuals having a discussion and is transgressed into a situation of just name calling.  For example, I read in your personal testimony that you grew up in a
family of moderate Muslims.  Would you call any Muslim thinker similar to your family, stupid, terrorist, etc.? You see there is a difference between saying “I hate Islam” and “I hate you because you practice Islam”.  Racism is defined as prejudice against someone for their personal beliefs.  I have ideological differences with Islam, and my criticism of it is different from the one your website advocates.  But just because I differ in personal opinion, I’m not going to march outside a mosque and yell obscenities at people I don’t even know.  I’m not going to judge them.  The non-muslims you speak of who are fair to say what they want about muslims are not all so innocent.  In my town, after September 11^th, there was this small Pakistani fast food place owned by a very small family, nice people, and very respectful.  Someone attempted to set it on fire.  Is this the kind of act you are encouraging? They had nothing to do with Islamic fundamentalism.  They were just a simple family trying to make some money. 

I hope we at least can keep this discussion on a high level of respect.  I’d really appreciate a response.  Thank you.

Best Regards,

Ahmed B