Whoops, Frum is still apologizing for Islam

In my desire to be fair to the neocons in general, and to be open to the possibility that David Frum in particular is recognizing the nature of Islam, I failed in the previous entry to take in the implications of a paragraph that appears at the end of his article:

Isolated and propagandized by their own leaders, British Muslims have succumbed to a culture of paranoia and resentment. A poll conducted for the BBC in December 2002 found that 56% of British Muslims refused to believe that al Qaeda had carried out the 9/11 attacks – and that 44% believed that terrorist attacks against the United States were justified.

My Indian correspondent living in the West, who kindly brought the passage to my attention, writes:

This is delusional. They haven’t succumbed to “paranoia” and “resentment” because of propaganda. The ultimate cause is Islam, not “leadership” or the lack thereof. To take another example, when Muslims in the Middle East harbour similar opinions, Frum will blame the local tyrants and their “brainwashing.”

The logic is clear. In both cases, Islam cannot be held ultimately responsible.

I wrote back to my correspondent:

Thanks a million. I missed it. Even I can be snookered, so eager am I to see them join us.

He replied:

Welcome.

I have learnt over time that there’s no neocon without a qualifier. Without a qualifier (and some wiggle room), they would be in trouble!

Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 02, 2005 02:56 PM | Send