brethren priestess online

Dear Editor, Daily Review;

I read with disappointment the violent opinion piece by John Brown, titled “Draw up a List.” Mr. Brown seems to think that threatening civilians and offending the adherents of the second largest world religion passes for good war strategy. Perhaps he is trying to be sarcastic by threatening to decimate the 15 most holy Muslim cities, in sickly calculated order, until ‘moderate’ Muslims somehow rein in their extremist brethren?

It is hard to imagine such a plan would not just further anger the United States’ allies in the Muslim world. Unfortunately, Brown ignores the many moderate and liberal Muslims who already denounce the violent acts of conservative, fundamentalist Muslim terrorists.

More alarmingly, though, Brown seems happy to resort to the very terrorist tactics he supposedly condemns (threatening civilians and lumping a diverse people into a monolithic group). Let me propose to shorten this war of terror by being a voice of moderate Christianity, to shun extremists like Brown for turning the religion of Christianity and the principles of American democracy into a manifesto of hate.

Here’s the scary opinion piece I’m writing about:

Draw up a list, by John Brown, Hayward

Islamic extremists wear no uniform and do not claim to represent any particular country, therefore making them hard to “target,” so the following suggestion should make eminent sense.

The 15 most holy sites of Islam should be identified and publicized.

An “open letter” to al-Qaida should be published in, say, the New York Times, stating that any attack on the West that can verified as coming from that extremist group will result in the destruction of No. 15 on the list of Islamic holy sites. A further attack will result in the destruction of No. 14 on the list. Another attack, and No. 13 will be destroyed, and so on.

How long do you suppose it will take for so-called “moderate” Muslims to begin clamoring for the obliteration of al-Qaida and their extremist ilk?

Would this provoke outrage? Sure. It’s meant to do just that . . . outrage against al-Qaida for hijacking what is supposed to be a religion of peace, and attempting to impose Islamic extremist law on the entire world, resulting in the destruction of Islamic holy places.

President Bush has said that this war against terrorism is going to be a very long one. I propose to shorten it by encouraging moderate Muslims to not only shun the extremists, but to actively identify, disarm and punish them for turning the religion of Islam into a manifesto of hate.

* My friend Esther notes, “I’ve read previous racist messages from John Brown in the Daily Review with various targets.”