Daniel Pipes & Bernard Lewis vs. Tocqueville

“I studied the Quran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction that by and large there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Muhammad. So far as I can see, it is the principal cause of the decadence so visible today in the Muslim world and, though less absurd than the polytheism of old, its social and political tendencies are in my opinion more to be feared, and I therefore regard it as a form of decadence rather than a form of progress in relation to paganism itself.”

Paul Eidelberg quotes Alexis de Tocqueville on Islam and asks: “Can anyone imagine scholars like Bernard Lewis and Daniel Pipes hinting, let alone saying, such a thing today about Muslims?”

Er … well actually, yes.

Foundation for Constitutional Democracy, 10 December 2004