Mr. Obama Do not tolerate radical Islam, A Letter From India

When I first heard about President Obama's desire to reach out to "moderate" Taliban I wondered what could a "moderate" Taliban be?  If a radical Taliban  cuts off their enemies head, would a moderate one only slit his neck? I don't mean to sound flippant, but the point is there is no "moderate" Taliban.

In other countries that face terrorism all the time, President Obama is making a big mistake. The article below is written by Tavleen Singh, an Indian  who supported Obama. Singh argues that instead of listening to the ‘thinkers’ and think tanks in Washington Mr. Obama would do better to listen carefully to what the Islamists themselves say loudly and clearly. He would discover that the objective of the worldwide jihad is to convert the whole world to radical Islam.

Read Mr. Singhs entire argument here:

Do not tolerate radical Islam
Tavleen Singh


As a huge fan of Barack Obama and a dedicated enemy of radical Islam it worried me to hear the American President talk of ‘moderate’ Taliban. I found myself wondering how they would be graded. Would those who burned girls’ schools but did not participate in the global jihad be considered moderate? What about those who believe in stoning women to death and marrying nine-year-old girls but not in suicide bombing—would they be considered moderate? By this measure the men who blew the Bamian Buddhas to smithereens would be considered mere pranksters trying to amuse Allah with a spectacular display of idol smashing.

After the American President made his comment about moderate Taliban he got a response from the Taliban themselves. There is no such thing as moderate Taliban, a Taliban spokesman retorted angrily, unless the President meant the lazy old Muslims who sit idly at home instead of joining the jihad against Jews, Hindus and Americans.

Instead of listening to the ‘thinkers’ and think tanks in Washington Mr. Obama would do better to listen carefully to what the Islamists themselves say loudly and clearly. He would discover that the objective of the worldwide jihad is to convert the whole world to radical Islam. They believe this is what Allah wants and are ready to die fighting to make Allah’s wishes come true so that they can spend Eternity frolicking with those seventy-two virgins in Paradise. Odd, isn’t it, that it’s alright to get up to all sorts of mischief in heaven but a sin to do the same things on Earth?


Radical Islam is an ugly, dangerous ideology. There is nothing in it that would help solve the world’s problems or lighten its shadows. Its fundamental principle is that everything we need to know about life, laws and faith is revealed in the Koran and that we must abide by the interpretation given us by semi-literate, fanatical mullahs. If not we will be punished horribly by bearded mujahideen. Radical Islamists believe they have the right to impose their diktat well beyond faith to politics, culture and every aspect of life. This is where the problem begins.

For us in India it is an especially serious problem. Not only do we have more Muslims than almost any other country but we are also the ultimate idol-worshipping country, bursting at the seams with heathens who indulge happily in such pagan festivals as Holi. We like being heathens and we want India to stay the way it is—full of loose, pub-going women who disdain being told how to behave by priests and other fanatics. The Islamists would like these things to change and for India to become more Islamic. In interviews to magazines and newspapers they have no hesitation in admitting that they think India would benefit from becoming fully Islamic. We must fight them because our way is better and worth fighting for. Freedom of worship is a superior idea to the totalitarian faith that radical Islam preaches.

The religions of India are in their essence atheistic and the opposite in almost every way to the theistic religions that came to us from the neighbourhood in which Islam was revealed to the Prophet. For centuries we have lived peacefully with Islam because of our fundamental belief that everyone has a right to their own faith. But, with the visible radicalisation of Muslims across India under the malevolent influence of radical Islamists, tensions between the communities have grown in recent years. These tensions are compounded by the sad reality that a very large number of India’s Muslims live in desperate poverty. They are mostly illiterate and those who are not are often schooled in madrassas that make them unemployable and deprive them of all access to modern ideas. They become easy recruits for the jihad, easy to convince that killing innocent people by killing themselves will get them an extra virgin or two in Paradise.

Even by the standards of radical Islam the Taliban are unspeakable monsters as can be seen from a casual examination of what they did when they ruled Afghanistan and what they are now doing to Swat and Bajaur. In Swat more than 200 girls’ schools have been burned in recent months, schoolgirls have been attacked for daring to go to school, journalists have been beheaded for telling the truth and Sufi Mohammad has given interviews saying that democracy is an infidel idea. To accept any of these things as acceptable because Islam has a different set of values to ours would amount to tolerating intolerance. In many European countries this has already happened with dangerous consequences. If Barack Obama continues to search for moderate Taliban to negotiate peace with, the consequences for the world are likely to be even more dangerous.