Has there been a bizarre "harmonic convergence" on Islam between Daniel Pipes, the historian, and unabashed Zionist, and the late Israel-negating, Palestinian polemicist, Edward Said? Daniel Pipes' 5/13/13 essay in The Washington Times derides "those who focus on Islam itself as the problem" -- identifying Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Wafa Sultan, and Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilders by name. Most of his essay re-affirms (but never establishes by dint of hard doctrinal and historical facts) the same glib, tired arguments Pipes has discussed before: Islam's prophet Muhammad was not an "Islamist," and was not responsible for "Islamism," which is a "modern extremist variant" of Islam; an "unbearable" discordance between "pre-modern accomplishment and modern failure" caused the (mass?) "psychic trauma" which engendered "Islamism" in the 1920s; and a mere 10-15% of Muslims support what Pipes terms "Islamism." Pipes concludes his latest iteration of "Islam Versus Islamism" by attacking those...(Read Full Post)