Monday, October 09, 2006

Heard of Bassam Tibi?

No? Well, he has a thing or two, or three to say in an interview in Germany's Der Spiegel:-

Spiegel: When something insults Muslims, we often tend to just back off — doesn’t this help defuse the conflict?

Tibi (*) : No. That is simply giving up. And the weaker the partner is viewed by the Muslims, then the greater the anger which they express. And this anger is often carefully staged...The accusation of cultural insensitivity is a weapon. And we have to neutralize it...

Muslims have to give up three things if they want to become Europeans:

They have to bid farewell to the idea of converting others, and renounce the Jihad. The Jihad is not just a way of testing yourself but also means using violence to spread Islam. The third thing they need to give up is the Shariah, which is the Islamic legal system… Pluralism and tolerance are pillars of modern society. That has to be accepted. But pluralism doesn’t just mean diversity. It means that we share the same rules and values, and are still nevertheless different. Islam doesn’t have this idea. And Islam also has no tradition of tolerance. In Islam tolerance means that Christians and Jews are allowed to live under the protection of Muslims but never as citizens with the same rights. What Muslims call tolerance is nothing other than discrimination.

(Kippah tip: Melanie Phillips)


(*)
Bassam Tibi, 62, was born in Damascus, Syria and came to Germany when he was 18 to study in Frankfurt. He has been a German citizen since 1967.

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