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Moderate Muslims?
American Conservative Union Foundation ^ | December 16, 2004 | Daniel Pipes

Posted on 12/22/2004 12:47:47 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Moderate Muslims?
By Daniel Pipes

There is good news to report: the idea that "militant Islam is the problem, moderate Islam is the solution" is finding greater acceptance over time. But there is also bad news, namely growing confusion over who really is a moderate Muslim. This means that the ideological side of the war on terror is making some, but only limited, progress.

The good news: Anti-Islamist Muslims are finding their voice since 9/11. Their numbers include distinguished academics such as Azar Nafisi (Johns Hopkins), Ahmed al-Rahim (formerly of Harvard), Kemal Silay (Indiana), and Bassam Tibi (Göttingen). Important Islamic figures like Ahmed Subhy Mansour and Muhammad Hisham Kabbani are speaking out.

Organizations are coming into existence. The American Islamic Forum for Democracy, headed by Zuhdi Jasser, is active in Phoenix, Arizona. The Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism appears to be genuinely anti-Islamist, despite my initial doubts about its founder, Kamal Nawash.

Internationally, an important petition posted a month ago by a group of liberal Arabs calls for a treaty banning religious incitement to violence and specifically names "sheikhs of death" (such as Yusuf Al-Qaradawi of Al-Jazeera television), demanding that they be tried before an international court. Over 2,500 Muslim intellectuals from 23 countries rapidly signed this petition.

With time, individual Muslims are finding their voice to condemn Islamist connections to terrorism. Perhaps most outstanding is an article by Abdel Rahman al-Rashed, a Saudi journalist in London: "It is a certain fact that not all Muslims are terrorists," he writes, "but it is equally certain, and exceptionally painful, that almost all terrorists are Muslims. … We cannot clear our names unless we own up to the shameful fact that terrorism has become an Islamic enterprise; an almost exclusive monopoly, implemented by Muslim men and women."

Other analysts have followed al-Rashed’s example. Osama El-Ghazali Harb writes from Egypt that "Muslim and Arab intellectuals and opinion leaders must confront and oppose any attempt to excuse the barbaric acts of these [terrorist] groups on the grounds of the suffering endured by Muslims." From Virginia, Anouar Boukhars holds that "Terrorism is a Muslim problem, and refusal to admit so is indeed troubling."

The bad news: There are lots of fake-moderates parading about, and they can be difficult to identify, even for someone like me who devotes much attention to this topic. The Council on American-Islamic Relations still wins mainstream support and the Islamic Society of North America still sometimes hoodwinks the U.S. government. The brand-new Progressive Muslim Union wins rave reviews for its alleged moderation from gullible journalists, despite much of its leadership (Salam Al-Marayati, Sarah Eltantawi, Hussein Ibish, Ali Abunimah) being well-known extremists.

Fortunately, the authorities kept both Tariq Ramadan and Yusuf Islam out of the United States, but Khaled Abou El Fadl got through and, worse, received a presidential appointment.

Even anti-terrorist rallies are not always what they seem to be. On Nov. 21, several thousand demonstrators, some of them Muslim, marched under banners proclaiming "Together for Peace and against Terror" in Cologne, Germany. Marchers shouted "No to terror" and politicians made feel-good statements. But the Cologne demonstration, coming soon after the murder of Theo van Gogh on Nov. 2, served as a clever defense operation. The organizer of the event, the Islamist Diyanet Isleri Türk-Islam Birligi, used it as a smokescreen to fend off pressure for real change. Speeches at the demonstration included no mea culpas or calls for introspection, only apologetics for jihad and invocations of stale and empty slogans such as "Islam means peace."

This complex, confusing record points to several conclusions:

Daniel Pipes (www.DanielPipes.org) is director of the Middle East Forum and author of Miniatures (Transaction Publishers).


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TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Philosophy; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: clerics; danielpipes; islam; islamists; moderateislam; moderates; muslims; radicalislam; radicals; religionofpeace; terrorism; terrorists
Are there moderate muslims? The answer, fortunately, seems to be "yes." However, there may be difficulty determining who the true moderates are.
1 posted on 12/22/2004 12:47:47 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
"’" is obviously the humble apostrophe.
2 posted on 12/22/2004 12:48:48 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Deport 'em all; let Fox sort 'em out!)
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To: abner; Abundy; AGreatPer; alisasny; AnnaSASsyFR; Angelwood; aristeides; Askel5; basil; bayliving; ..

Deport the radical muslims PING!


3 posted on 12/22/2004 12:50:53 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Deport 'em all; let Fox sort 'em out!)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
However, there may be difficulty determining who the true moderates are.

They are the ones who -- knowingly or not (doesn't matter) -- fund the jihad.

Another way of looking at it, they're the ones with the remote-control bombs.

4 posted on 12/22/2004 12:55:47 PM PST by newgeezer
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
A moderate muslim only watches and sends money, but is not violent?
5 posted on 12/22/2004 12:57:02 PM PST by TexasCajun
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To: TexasCajun
I find it hard to beleive that if they follow the Koran, they can ever be moderate. The Koran has way too much death, "smite the necks", submit to allah or die, pay an anti-muslim tax, can only talk bad about Islam at the risk of death.... If any of that garbage can be explained as moderate, then I think whoever does that explaining could even give slick bubba willie and hillie's damage control spin doctors a lesson or two.

I'm not going to ever trust them as far as I can throw them. Junk religion, violent people. They want their jihad? Ok, good deal. Lets go to work and give them what they want.

6 posted on 12/22/2004 1:15:43 PM PST by libs_kma (USA: The land of the Free....Because of the Brave!)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Are there moderate muslims?
Yes, they are the ones that shoot you BEFORE they hack off your head.
7 posted on 12/22/2004 1:19:12 PM PST by GrandEagle
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Well of course there are (Regardless of what the "Nuke Mecca" types say).

Otherwise, the world wide population of blood thirsty muslim animals certainly are the most undermotivated blood thirsty muslim animals I've ever heard of.

That being said...

I would like to see these moderate muslims stand-up and lead more often. LOUDLY!!


8 posted on 12/22/2004 1:24:10 PM PST by I Gig Gar (Is civil conversation too much to ask?)
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Comment #9 Removed by Moderator

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks; All
Dr. Pipes is sadly mistaken. Nice wishful thinking though but misleading and false. There is no such thing as a "moderate muslim".

There are however good muslims and bad muslims in the same way that there are good christians and bad christians. Religion is kinda funny like that. You either go to heaven or hell, there is no middle ground.

Would we call a Christian who believes in having homosexual priests and pastors a "moderate christian"? Perhaps a Christian who believes that abortion is woman's right to choose? "moderate"?

Islam Hadari for Beginners

10 posted on 12/22/2004 1:35:02 PM PST by expatguy ("Fallujah Delenda Est!")
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Are there moderate muslims? The answer, fortunately, seems to be "yes." However, there may be difficulty determining who the true moderates are.

I work with a few Muslims that were forced to leave Iraq when he purged Shiites in the 1970's. They are about as pro-US and pro-Bush as anyone else that I know of.

11 posted on 12/22/2004 1:37:08 PM PST by 1LongTimeLurker
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Yes, there are moderate Moslems - I know several. The problem is that Moslems are required to donate to the mosque (charity is one of the Five Pillars of Islam) and those charities are so ridden with corruption that it is difficult to know when the money winds up purchasing explosives for some kiddy in Palestine. What is wrong with contemporary Islam is systemic in nature, and the nicest and most well-meaning of them can still be exploited by the rest.


12 posted on 12/22/2004 1:38:38 PM PST by Billthedrill
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To: libs_kma
I'm not going to ever trust them as far as I can throw them.

muslims are known worldwide as liars, their word means nothing, it's how they conduct business and their lives!

13 posted on 12/22/2004 3:14:23 PM PST by TexasCajun
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Islamists note the urge to find moderate Muslims and are learning how to fake moderation.

In the South of Thailand, many Muslims talk the talk of moderation. However, the motorcycle mounted murders are never caught as they blend back into the general population. The "moderates" usually talk about the killing of Muslim protesters by the police and military, never mentioning the killing of 550 Buddhists and government supporters.

Yesterday, four pro-government individuals were killed, including two teachers, but the "moderates talked about economic inequality and how the Buddhist businessmen discriminated against Muslims.

14 posted on 12/22/2004 4:03:17 PM PST by JimSEA ( "More Bush, Less Taxes.")
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Are there moderate muslims? The answer, fortunately, seems to be "yes."

Do these 'moderate' muslims believe all the leftist nonsense of 'moderate' pols in this country? Are they essentially unbelievers? More to the point, have they ever published their . . moderate . . Koran, for everyone else to read? Cause the one that we all get to see seems to recommend an awful lot of violence against the infidel, those who won't forcibly convert to Islam. Just how the thing reads. What are THEY readin?

15 posted on 12/22/2004 4:10:18 PM PST by sevry
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
This is where they live.


16 posted on 12/22/2004 8:03:13 PM PST by Mike Darancette (MESOCONS FOR RICE '08)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

They are the ones who have run out of ammo.


17 posted on 12/22/2004 8:05:08 PM PST by Straight Vermonter (Liberalism: The irrational fear of self reliance.)
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