Palm Beach Daily News: We are peaceful practicing Muslims and patriotic Americans

By Ahmed Rehab

http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/opinion/content/news/2009/05/30/EDITrehabletter.html

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In response to:

http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/search/content/arts/2009/03/20/ali0321.html

Aayan Hirsi Ali claims there are two schools of thought: one that believes Muslims can assimilate in the West, and another, to which she belongs, that believes Islam is not a religion of peace.

There is a third school of thought: The assimilation of Muslims in the West is already a reality that many live every day, including myself and millions of my American co-religionists.

For us, our American Muslim identity is not a postulation but a daily reality. We are peaceful practicing Muslims and patriotic Americans — and we do not see a contradiction between the two.

Like Muslim extremists, Ms. Ali (an anti-Muslim extremist) subscribes to absolutism and puritanism, the two basic ingredients of extremism. She is entitled to her belief, but she would be a bit self-centric and self-important to define the world, including me and millions of others, through her bad personal experience.

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