Posted on 09/29/2015 11:25:03 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Islam is being associated with the evil we witness around us. People in areas controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) are pushed to flee and seek refuge from this evil that has befallen them. Islam has been hijacked by an evil group that speaks in the name of Muslims and dictates its religious interpretations on them.
However, religions came for the good of everyone, and for the sake of expelling evil from people’s lives. Islam came as a mercy to people, and it was the persecuted - slaves, the poor and the vulnerable - who first converted to it after it became well-known for its justice.
Political Islam Islam has been politicized during the last three decades. The big transformation began with the Islamic revolution in Iran. It expanded after the concept of jihad was introduced in Afghanistan. It expanded further due to the use of religion as a political tool. At this point, extremists emerged and the status of moderates, who were the religious leaders of society, declined.
To save Muslims and the world, the solution is moderate Islam - that is a bigger and more important project than fighting ISIS and the cancer of extremism
Even today’s Salafism, which is characterized as a source of extremism and a cause of our current crisis, has nothing to do with the traditional Salafism that in the past dealt with worship and behavior.
As a result of the struggle in the Islamic arena, hardliners dominated over the moderates, then extremists dominated over the hardliners. We are now in the phase of ultra extremists. ISIS represents pure evil, which previously appeared at the beginning of Islamic history 14 centuries ago, and Muslims successfully fought it.
However, Muslims today will not win unless they fight extremists’ concept of Islam, which is pushing them to clash with the world and become enemies with Islam's different sects. The crisis will be prolonged if Muslim leaders do not adopt moderate Islam, which reformulates the life of people and society, and restores the balance that religion created to fight evil. To save Muslims and the world, the solution is moderate Islam - that is a bigger and more important project than fighting ISIS and the cancer of extremism.
This article was first published in Asharq al-Awsat on Sept. 28, 2015.
______________ Abdulrahman al-Rashed is the former General Manager of Al Arabiya News Channel. A veteran and internationally acclaimed journalist, he is a former editor-in-chief of the London-based leading Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat, where he still regularly writes a political column. He has also served as the editor of Asharq al-Awsat’s sister publication, al-Majalla. Throughout his career, Rashed has interviewed several world leaders, with his articles garnering worldwide recognition, and he has successfully led Al Arabiya to the highly regarded, thriving and influential position it is in today.
14 years too late.
There. Fixed it.
5.56mm
Moderate Islam is like hot ice. There is no such thing.
the man apparently has never studied Free Republic Dogma because if he had he would there in no moderate Islam and that Indonesia and Kuwait and Maylasia and Bangladesh don’t really exist
Yeah. Let’s get some moderqte Nazism, moderate communism, and moderate Satanism while we’re at it.
A moderate muslim is one who has run out of ammunition.
Good one!! - and historically true.
Moderate muslim = taqiyya
There are only two worldviews and only ONE is superior to all others:
1. The Christian Worldview which created the Age of Reason, Modern Science and Individualism/Natural Rights from God (true Freedom for all) and the most brilliant political documents in human history.
2. Satanic, Socialist, Marxist, irrational tribal Worldview——where Might makes Right—or Majority Tyranny is “good”, and Vice —using human beings in evil, vile, dehumanizing, irrational ways— is a “Good”. All cultures based on irrationalism (Postmodernism) are hell-holes for the masses.
Tribalism can have any number of false gods and idols-—but all are irrational and contradictory to Truth/God’s Laws and ignore the Laws of Nature (Facts/Science) and the one true God of the Holy Bible (the Book of Wisdom of the Ages).
Its the solution in the Mid-East, where they should remain.
In the West, its a total FRAUD.
If they would stop the violence against non-ROP’ers. If they would stop demanding special privileges from non-ROP’ers. If they would treat non-ROP’ers decently in their countries. If they didn’t come to our countries and demand free things.
Then they’d be OK.
I’m for a moderate pace in the eradication of Islam...In the hope of limiting cases of mistaken identity.
If such a thing existed, it would be.
So there is no solution.
Point taken...
You might want to scratch off Malaysia from your list...
There have been several terrorist attacks in that country recently...
There IS no moderate Islam.
Jesus is the solution, not Mohammed’s death cult.
It’s not just fear.
It is haram (forbidden) in Islam to take up arms against a fellow muslim. The radicals don’t care, because they simply declare the moderates to be apostates, and therefore not muslim, so they can attack them. The moderates, on the other hand, can’t really declare the radicals apostates, because the radicals follow the religion very strictly.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.