A nation must think before it acts.
On Facebook, Robert George Describes FPRI Work “as a public service”
Robert George re-posted on Facebook and commented on Sam Helfont’s essay on Islam and Islamism. George is the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University and Chairman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom. In the post George wrote:
“The Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia, led by Alan Luxenberg, does excellent work. In this essay, one of its scholars explores and explains Islam and Islamism. His point—an important one—is that they are not necessarily the same thing. All Islamists are Muslims, but not all Muslims are Islamists. Of course, Islamists claim to represent “the true” Islam, but many devout Muslims reject their claims. From a sociological vantage point “Islam” does not represent any one particular thing. There are many different versions of Islam. Some are indeed Islamist; some utterly reject Islamist political ideology. It’s complicated. Those of us who are not Muslims need to avoid lumping all Muslims (and versions of Islam) together. Let’s strive to do justice to the complexity of a situation in which the label “Islam” is claimed by people ranging from monstrous ISIS extremists to peace-loving Ahmadis, Sufis, and non-radical Sunnis and Shiites. There is a struggle within Islam and even within particular traditions of Islam (including the Sunni and Shia) between Islamists and non-Islamists. In this article and in other work, the FPRI helps us to understand this struggle. It is an important public service.”