Most Islamists are seeking peaceful change
Most Islamists are seeking peaceful change
The Toronto Star February 27, 1994, Sunday, SUNDAY SECOND EDITION
Copyright 1994 Toronto Star Newspapers, Ltd.
The Toronto Star
February 27, 1994, Sunday, SUNDAY SECOND EDITION
SECTION: LETTER; Pg. C2
LENGTH: 171 words
HEADLINE: Most Islamists are seeking peaceful change
BODY:
Re Secular Egyptians under siege (Feb. 13) by Bob Hepburn. The Islamic movement, like any other, has its fair share of radicals but most seek peaceful and democratic change within the system.
As the American scholar of Islam John Esposito writes ( Current History, Jan., 1994), “To equate Islam and Islamic fundamentalism uncritically with extremism is to judge Islam by those who wreak havoc – a standard not applied to Judaism and Christianity.”
Contrary to the impression left by Hepburn’s article, most Islamists are not against modernism in the strict sense of the term; they are against the wholesale and unquestioned adoption of Western values into their societies – a choice they are entitled to make as free and rational beings.
Moreover, the fact that they don’t accept secularism and the Western liberal tradition is not due to fanaticism, obscurantism and demagoguery, but rather because they see Islam as a viable and alternative ideology with which to order their lives.
Faisal Kutty
Ottawa
Tags: Islam
Short URL: http://tinyurl.com/y93kqcd
