There is some misguided sense that speaking out about excesses that run rampant in Islamic societies is tantamount to telling Bush he should nuke ‘em all. We’re supposed to pretend that honor killings, mutilating young girls, preaching hate, violence, and the goal of world domination in the madrasahs, assassinating authors, and on and on and on are all somehow okay, and no one should “call a spade a spade” (relax, it’s from ancient Greek).

Well, I’m happy to acknowledge that our own Xtian fundies would love nothing more than to make our schools into their own madrasahs (http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-na-creation11feb11,0,1110748.story?coll=la-home-headlines) and enslave women (try Jon Krakauer’s “Under The Banner of Heaven” to see what this might look like right here at home). It’s our job to find a way to slap ‘em down. That doesn’t include biting our tongues.

These people seem to do some sort of twisted “some of my best friends are Muslim” and turn that into “if my Muslim friend is nice it’s all fine.” Well I know a lot of real nice fundamentalist Xtians, but I wouldn’t want my daughter to marry one and I’d point out every one of the reasons why, loud and clear if she wanted to.

Maybe when Sandi Dubowski’s new film “In the Name of Allah” about how much fun it is to be gay in an Islamic society opens it will play side-by-side with Brokeback Mountain and we’ll get to see fundamentalist Muslims and Xtians protesting side-by-side. (Maybe there’ll be a fatwa issued against Dubowski.) Then everyone can see just how close they are. Now tell me: At that point do we only get to blast the Xtians?

Islam, for hundreds of years, was at the forefront of human civilization. Arabic was the language of economy and commerce in Europe. Muslims actually acted out their religion, as peaceful, clean, and pure people, and the result of this was that in every field and in every way, shape or form, Islam dominated. Muslims have always been passionate about their faith, but back then, they didn’t always have to be on the defensive. They were free to practice their faith.

Islam as we know it is a result of internal corruption of leaders and foreign interference over the past few centuries. Muslim leaders have become increasingly materialistic, and lost the spirit of their faith. The first leaders of the Muslim people rejected luxury, and lived on barley and water, knowing that the less they took from their people in this life the more they would be rewarded by their God in the next. Today, you only have the corrupt, like King Fahd of Saudi Arabia who built himself a palace underneath the Red Sea, while many of his people hardly live.

The Muslim people have been without a leader for the past hundred years. Ever since the Khilifah was destroyed, there has been nobody who could effectively string up the entire Muslim people back to their faith. The people who try are shot down by their own governments, labeled as terrorists, or jailed indefinitely. Corruption is way too profitable, so when people like Hassan al Bannah, and Sheikh Kishk from Egypt and scores of others attempt to start bringing their people back to their faith nobody, not the U.S. government, or any European or any corrupt Arab governments, wants them to succeed.

The problem is not the Islamic faith. It is the absence of a Muslim leader. Of course the Arabs are angry at having their lands occupied, their people killed, and their faith ridiculed. But what can they do without a leader?