Correspondence

By JEWISH REVIEW

article created on: 2009-04-01T00:00:00

To the editor,

I was disappointed to read Dr. Kosansky’s complaint (Jewish Review, Correspondence, March 15, B-6) that the Jewish Review ran a report about polling done in the Muslim world to gauge public opinion, simply because he didn’t like the results.

Takfiri Islam—the belief that there is this one and only one way to G-d, and that the world must be made to submit to it—is not a fiction.

This is the faith behind hundreds of terrorist attacks in which thousands of Americans, Iraqis, Indians, Afghans, Pakistanis, Russians, Spaniards, Britons and Israelis have been killed. As much as we don’t like it, there are millions cheering on those attacks, and tens of millions quietly supporting them.

Pretending otherwise doesn’t further peace and freedom in this world. It only allows us to congratulate ourselves on our cultural sensitivity, while leaving moderate Muslims—the first victims of Takfiri violence—to fend for themselves.

As Jews, we may be a target, but this isn’t just about us. It’s about Somali parents in Michigan who find out that their sons have been shipped off to fight an African jihad; and Iraqi parents who learn too late that someone strapped a bomb around their daughter’s waist.

We are all in this together, all who want to live a free and modern life. And we can’t make it all better by just pretending that it doesn’t exist.
Susan Blatt
Portland