Imperialism responsible for toothache, flat tire.

As Reuel Marc Gerecht points out in his Sept. 21 editorial-page commentary "The Pope's Divisions," many Muslims wrongly perceive Islam as a political and military tool of conquest -- which will only corrupt it as Christianity was during the Middle Ages. . . .

Pope Benedict is right to appeal to logos, that nexus of reason and spirituality, to compel people to ask what is going wrong in the world at large, and Islam in particular. . . . As Christianity and Judaism work toward an interfaith understanding, Islam is the prodigal son that needs to return home to the cradle of civilization that it shares with its monotheistic brethren.

But reason, as a basis for understanding revealed truth, is the same foundation for understanding politics. And when people don't want to acknowledge the conclusions that derive from reason and logic, they become dissonant, dissociated, even violent. "Choice" is often considered the mark of intellectual independence, but it's also a mask for denying what follows from reason. In other words, I have a right to believe what I wish, even if I know I'm wrong. This attitude often manifests itself in liberal democracies among social militants of the left. But you also see the ideology of victimhood -- one of its offshoots -- taking root in the Middle Eastern critique of the West's alleged intent to subjugate Arabs through "colonialism" -- when it is really their own cultural and intellectual inertia that is holding them back.

Richard Reay. Letter to the Editor, Wall Street Journal Online, 9/26/06 (emphasis added; subscription).