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civil war. In that context, we have to note that the Muslims are fighting
their neighbors right around the whole perimeter of the Islamic world.
They're fighting Hindus. They're fighting Chinese, whether they're
fighting them as Buddhists or as Communists. They're fighting Jews.
They're fighting African animists. They're fighting Catholics. They're
fighting every variety of Christian. We can draw from it the simple con–
clusion: there is something in their politics or religion or both which is
intolerant. They are not prepared to compromise with their neighbors
of any persuasion. We must ask ourselves why that is. 1 think the answer
is that their own societies have failed. The failure is very painful. They
thought, in the post-I945 world, that they would be independent and
that independence would lead to a whole new relationship with every–
body else. Well, they became independent and all it led to was more of
the same. They're independent, but not free. The political systems in the
Muslim world, so far, are all absolute. Everyone of them is a despotism.
This is what is responsible for the failure of their society.
It
is not our
fault, but theirs. They haven't evolved the sorts of political structures
that would allow them to compromise. They can't get along with them–
selves, let alone get along with us. The war that takes place between
Muslims is every bit as intense as the war between Muslims and non–
Muslims. Look at the civil war that has devastated Islamic countries in
the last fifty years, whether it's Lebanon, Oman, Sudan, Afghanistan–
the list is endless and very painful. So they come to our countries. Now,
the question, really, is on what terms are they going to assimilate? Will
they be like everybody who has come to the United States and assimi–
lated here, becoming part of some other larger culture in which they can
remain themselves, while also becoming American? Or will they say
"You Americans have got to become us. You've got to become Mus–
lims."? There are some American Muslim spokesmen who say the lat–
ter. Dr. Siddiqui is paid for by Iran, and he set up something called the
Muslim Parliament of Britain in order to pass its own laws in contra–
diction to the laws passed in Parliament. He says the laws passed in Par–
liament are of no interest to a Muslim, and so we must live under the
Sharia
as he proclaims it. He is, in fact, an Iranian agent, paid for by
Tehran, and perhaps we needn't take him very seriously, but we should
take him seriously to the extent that he speaks for quite large numbers
of very disaffected Muslims who would like to be Muslims in a free
world and don't see how to do so.
Art Meyer:
I have read that following the Camp David breakdown there
were some kinds of lower-level discussions at Taba in Egypt, and that
