In Reply to Sam Iqbal:

I agree that Gisèle Littman is biased against Islam, probably due to her experiences and those of her co-religionists in Egypt. I also agree that her aims are somewhat suspect and invariably involve support for Israel, ostensibly the latter's ethno-religious and territorial integrity. However, her work is of use as an alternate perspective to the Neo-Marxist drivel that ignores religion and culture and focuses solely upon socio-economic differences as the root of violence and instability. Moreover, although she essentializes Islam, such generalizations are not without merit when considering groups i.e. does it matter that many Germans in the 1930s and 1940s were opposed to the war? or that many Americans in the 1960s and 1970s wanted their soldiers out of Vietnam? or that many Americans believe Operation Iraqi Freedom is wrong? There are countless examples of groups pursuing specific paths at the expense of individual viewpoints within their collectivities. Islam is no different. While there are ethnic divisions within Islam (Palestinian, Arab, Pakistani, African, Uighur, etc.), Islam as a collective is on the warpath. Islam allows its most extreme and reactionary elements to assume a leadership role thus nullifying moderate voices or those of alternative Qu'ranic interpretation and scaring these into "submission" (no pun intended). However, I am not convinced that this state of affairs is for religious reasons; far from following true Islam, jihadists have merely referenced various Qu'ranic quotes as justifications for their thoughts and deeds. Indeed, Islamic incompatibility with Western civilization operates more on a cultural and ethno-racial level than it really does religious.

In Reply to Sangredo:

Firstly, despite their colorful history (see the Old Testament), the Jews were never afforded the opportunity to significantly expand, and thus after their dispersal throughout the Imperium Romanum had to abide as minorities by the customs of their hosts, be they pagans, Muslims or Christians. Thus, one cannot compare Jewish and Muslim treatment of minorities, especially as Israel was founded not only on Jewish but Western or European values. Secondly, it is interesting to note that during the early Middle Ages (and late also to a great extent), Muslim societies were more tolerant of minorities than Christian ones, as exemplified by the Thirty Years War and contradicted not by the West but by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which accepted Jewish refugees from all over Europe and tolerated denominational differences despite being staunchly Catholic and bordering religious strife in Germania and Bohemia. Just because I am of the opinion that Islam poses a threat to the West, does not mean that I am either ignorant of or attempting to whitewash history.

How good it is to have Mr. Iqbal writing comments such as this one. Let us see if readers of this blog can help him, and compare, point by point, how the treatment of the Jews compares with that of the muslims, how each has forced their host peoples to observe their customs under pain of murder and beheading, what each is or has been contributing to World culture (do not even pro rate the contribution by population). Who can come up with all the specifics he has left out?

Who, with any education and any brain, gives credence to his equating Jews with Muslims in this respect? Frankly, the mere fact that statements such as his are being regularly made and repeated, suggests that they are far more effective than one could imagine.

As for his comments about Bat Yeor, he cites not one piece of evidence--not one. His main point is to insinuate that she is an instrument of Zionism which, of course seeks to , 'increase rather than decrease the hatred and strife in the world'.

It's interesting that writers so alert to anti-Semitism have lent their names to an ideology that is so startlingly similar. In this theory, the Star of David has simply been replaced by the Islamic crescent. If the term has any meaning, this is authentic Islamophobia, treating virtually all Muslims as violent sharia-carriers.

Further, I pity the dense chunk of Western ‘liberals’ and Conservatives who adopt this mentality - unwittingly treating all Muslims as a homogeneous bloc represented by their most reactionary elements.

Also, Bat Ye’Or is a fraud. She does not give a shit about Europe or North America. Her ONLY objective is to recruit Christians (Westerners) to support the Zionist project.

She has nothing to offer serious political analysts or scholars of Islam or of world civilisations. However, she has much to offer propagandists who seek rhetorical ammunition to increase rather than decrease the hatred and strife in the world.