(New York Times) Thomas L. Friedman - In the war of ideas in the Muslim world today, we are spending way too much time debating with ourselves, or playing defense, and way too little time actually looking Arab Muslims in the eye and telling them the truth as we see it. In part, we are afraid to say the truth, because we - wrongly - believe these people are incapable of rational thought and will just react violently. The greatest respect we can show to Arabs and Muslims - and the best way to help Muslim progressives win the war of ideas - is to take them seriously. That means demanding that they answer for their lies, hypocrisy, and profane behavior, just as much as we must answer for ours.
2005-05-20 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive