Exploring the murky depths of my laptop this last week, I came upon a provocative pamphlet from about a decade ago, perhaps.
It’s provocative in a very good sense. The author, Dr. Tawfik Hamid, wrote passionately about the topic at hand, a passion that was palpable. Hamid is an Egyptian MD who identifies himself as a moderate Muslim. In the pamphlet, he was making the case that we must see what people mean when they invoke the name of Islam. Hamid found the need to do that, having joined an Egyptian jihadist group in the Eighties, which he then left as the result of the moral awakening that led him to be a Muslim reformer.
Here in the pamphlet, Hamid derides those Western accommodators who act as if morality requires their groveling before the jihadists he repudiates. Hoping only to be liked and affirmed, Hamid says that instead they legitimate the cruelest and most violent expressions of Islam instead of making common cause with those who embrace civilization and religious and cultural freedom.
Hamid’s pamphlet shows a cartoon dialogue between Mr. Tolerance and Osama bin Laden. In one frame, Mr. Tolerance says to Osama: “I think we should begin stoning women to death for committing adultery in order to show respect to your culture and sensitivity to your religious values!” Astonished and pleased, Osama tells his fawning co-dependent the raw details of the agenda of the Islamists, and at each step, Mr. Tolerance strives to out-rationalize Osama in order to get his approval.
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