Reuel Marc Gerecht Quotes

If there were an election held in any country of the Muslim world between the existing leaders and Osama bin Laden, bin Laden would win hands down

You would be wrong to assume democracy would be the only alternative if the old regimes [in the Middle East] fell. There is a much better-organized alternative already waiting, and that is ... fundamentalism.

… the Middle East has experienced a general ‘Islamization’ and radicalization of society ensuing from the rigid religious and often intolerant character of the civil society organizations now performing functions previously in the hands of state authorities.

You are right, but the weakness does not come from the millions of Muslims in the world. They do not mind being radical, they have no fear to speak out and to protest and to jihad.

The radical elements in Islam are very dangerous.

What is really happening here is the radicalization of the Moslems throughout the world.

Where did Islamic radicalism grow in the past years? It grew under dictatorships.

Throughout the Islamic world the radical Islamists dominate the discussion although they may be in the minority.

Islam does have two faces—a bright face and an evil face, and we must work with the former. The reaction of Moslems against Islamic extremism doesn’t get the coverage it should.

It is now abundantly clear the source of Muslim terrorism is situated within the body politic of Islam and its adherents, irrespective of how many times, on the one hand, some Muslim spokespersons try to obscure this reality and, on the other, politicians of whatever stripe for electoral purposes behave as ostriches with their heads in the sand

The Saudis are the primary sponsor of the Sunni version of Islamofascism.

Islam has been transformed from a religion to an ideology.

Islamofascism

For most of the West, democracy has tempered literal religion. For the Islamic world, literal religion has inhibited and obstructed democracy.

Just as not all socialists were proto-Stalinists, not all Islamists want to implement a theocratic regime.

I tend not to believe radical Muslim movements.

When I was writing 'The Satanic Verses,' if you had asked me about the phenomenon that we all now know as radical Islam, I wouldn't have had much to say. As recently as the mid-1980s, it didn't seem to be a big deal.

Nobody can deny there is a rise of Islamic fundamentalism.

I think there is no reason for us to bring to Islamism or political Islam the fear and ignorance of Western commentators and their hysterical vocabulary.

The enemy is not just terrorism. It is the threat posed specifically by Islamist terrorism, by Bin Ladin and others who draw on a long tradition of extreme intolerance within a minority strain of Islam that does not distinguish politics from religion, and distorts both.

There is an ideology problem in Islam. We need to revolutionize our religion.

If new, moderate leadership doesn’t persevere, we will see growing Muslim fundamentalism in America. The neoconservatives have recognized this, but their frightening solutions thwart progressive Muslims and empower extremists who argue that Westerners are intent on destroying Islam.

Islamists want power!

We must work with moderate Moslems who are also the victims of Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism.