105Now, again, I don’t want to get into the validity
of any of these approaches, forever cherry- picking
the so- called moderate view on every problematic
text you give me. Any given subject has multiple
interpretations, which demonstrates that there’s no
correct one. If we can understand that, then we ar-
rive at a res pect for difference, which leads to toler-
ance and then pluralism, which in turn leads to
democracy, secularism, and human rights. This is
the approach we should take with religion gener-
ally. Of course, this approach only works if our ad-
versaries are prepared to talk. Those terrorist groups
that wish to willfully target and slaughter children
en masse in order to “send them to paradise” should
face the full force of our global, civilizational con-
sensus, and be crushed.Harris Right. Well, I’m encouraged by that, although
I’m often discouraged when I actually look at the
details. For instance, you mentioned the fatwa
against the Islamic State that was signed by several
British imams, which we both spread on social
media. Obviously, I fi nd this sort of effort praise-
worthy. But what struck me about it was how ten-
uous its basis in Islamic doctrine seems. It comes
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