The Jihad against Muslims.

• Author: Joppa, Andrew R.
• Position: Letter to the editor

Cathy Young presumes that Islam is only a religion ("The Jihad Against Muslims," June 2006). It would be more accurately positioned as a sociopolitical system. Since its origins in the seventh century, it has been involved with warfare directed at converting the world to Islam. If it were not for the Battle of Tours and the Battle of Vienna the Muslims undoubtedly would have triumphed.

As we look at the last 100 years of Islam, its weakness and inadequacy should not be confused with a reluctance to fulfill its dogma. The same lesser jihad goes on. It is what the civilized world is now fighting, but we euphemistically call it "terrorism."

Young implies that at some point the negative view of Islam goes too far and results in a form of bigotry. But we always have a right to accept that people are who they announce they are. There is nothing in any creed of Islam that...