Author Mark Durie explains how we have embraced the dhimmi syndrome -- and what we can do to reverse the trend.

MT: A distinction is often made between Islam and Islamism. Do you feel that it’s a valid distinction, and is a reformed Islam possible?

MD: A thorough reading through the hadiths, sira and Koran led me to believe that reform in the sense of "improvement" is incredibly difficult. In medieval Christianity, reforming religion meant making it better by going back to its roots, back to the gospels. The problem is, if you reform Islam this way, you go back to Muhammad's message and example, and what you get is Wahhabism and al Qaida. Reform through reshaping Islam under the influence of external ideas, derived from non-Islamic sources, is conceivable, but the trend of the past 100 years has been just about all in the other direction.

If you put a young God-fearing Muslim in a room with an Islamic radical and an Islamic moderate, both trying to win over the young person's soul, the radical would win again and again. It is because the canon - hadiths, sira and Koran - are massively stacked in favor of the radical position. Yes, there are violent passages in the Bible too, but it is an uphill battle to build a violent theology based on them. With the Koran, building a violent theology is like rolling balls down a hill. It is a huge uphill struggle building a “moderate” Islamic theology on the basis of the Islamic canon alone.

I think some commentators - whose work I respect and admire - speak of “Islamism” because they don't want to dignify the radical cause by calling it “Islam.” Also, if they name the problem as “Islam,” it would seem too overwhelming. Nevertheless, I agree with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Wafa Sultan and other ex-Muslims that the problem of radical Islam is the problem of Islam itself. The will to dominate is hard-wired into the core texts of Islam, and this cannot be excised from the heart of these texts without a traumatic assault on the fundamentals of Islam. So I don't like to speak about “Islamism.” To me it feels like a cop-out.

Often I meet people who want to be informed about Islam but will let their minds grasp the problem only if the solution is clear. This is hopeless. You must first live with the problem, even for a long time, before solutions will come. But I am convinced we will  find solutions to the challenge of Islam. That is why I wrote The Third Choice– out of conviction that facing the truth will bring liberty.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/71950/third-choice-mark-tapson