Where are the moderate Muslims?

Once I read that the number of Germans directly involved in the Holocaust — giving orders in Berlin, building the infrastructure of the death camps, rounding up victims, piloting trains, releasing the gas, hunting down escapees and so forth — was 100,000.

In 1939 the population of the Reich was 80 million, so slightly more than one-tenth of 1 percent of the Germans were actually involved in murdering Jews.

Yet, somehow, I never see anyone trying to clear the German volk of the guilt of the crimes of Hitler's "tiny extremist minority." No, the verdict of history is that all Germans share the burden, because all Germans let it happen.

Today, many progressives in the Western world try to explain away crimes committed in the name of Islam. A Google search for the apologetic phrase "tiny extremist minority" turns up 252,000 results. Why is not the passive Muslim majority held to the same standard as the passive German majority?

In 2003, Nawaf Obaid, a Saudi national security consultant, surveyed 15,000 Saudis. Nearly 50 percent supported Osama bin Laden. Last July the Pew Research Center found that 51 percent of its sample of Pakistanis place confidence in Osama, and 60 percent of Jordanians support him. Is 60 percent a tiny minority?

The Pew Center also found that in Lebanon, support for suicide bombing in defense of Islam is 39 percent of its sample, and in Jordan it's 57 percent. Is 57 percent a tiny minority?

In October 2003, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah found that 75 percent of Palestinians in its sample supported the bombing of the Maxim restaurant in Haifa that killed 23 people, mostly Jews. Is 75 percent a tiny minority?

The London Telegraph reported in February that its ICM poll showed 40 percent of British Muslims in its sample favor applying sharia law in predominantly Muslim areas of the country. Is 40 percent a tiny minority?

In Turkey last year, a publisher issued a new $3.50 edition of "Mein Kampf." Previous editions cost $7. In the first quarter alone, the book sold more than 50,000 copies and reached the best-seller list drawn up by the D&R bookstore chain. Does a No. 5 book represent a tiny minority?

According to the Pew Center, large majorities of Muslims strongly dislike Jews in nations such as Morocco, Indonesia, Pakistan and Turkey. But it's hard to top Lebanon and Jordan, where the unfavorable rate is 99 percent. Who knew 99 percent could be a tiny minority?

A poll carried out by the London Guardian last year said 13 percent of British Muslims in the sample would support another 9-11-style attack on the United States. Another 15 percent were not sure. I wonder: Were these 15 percent really not sure, or did they simply choose to disguise their true feelings from a pollster?

The Muslim Council said the poll showed that the "overwhelming majority" of British Muslims "abhor" terrorism. That would be 72 percent opposing another 9-11, vs. 28 percent willing to consider it. There are more than 1.5 million Muslims in Britain, so 28 percent translates to 420,000 people who might be pleased to see more Americans leap out of blazing towers or definitely would be pleased to see more Americans leap out of blazing towers. I am not reassured.

A YouGov survey carried out for the London Daily Telegraph last July showed that 6 percent of British Muslims in the sample believe the 7-7 bombings were fully justified. Six percent is indeed a minority, but it's not quite a tiny one, and it's still 90,000 people, if the sample is translated to the entire target population.

Another 56 percent of British Muslims in the sample said they can understand why the bombers acted. Eighteen percent feel little or no loyalty to their country. Thirty-two percent believe "Western society is decadent and immoral" and "Muslims should seek to bring it to an end."

Seventy-three percent say they would inform the police if they knew something about a planned terrorist attack. This sounds nice, doesn't it? That "overwhelming majority" again. Until you realize it means that 27 percent of British Muslims would not inform the police of an imminent attack.

Last October a university in the conservative Turkish city of Diyarbakir released a survey on honor killings. It showed that 37 percent of the men and women in its sample believe that if a woman cheats on her husband, she should be killed. Another 21 percent would spare her life and just cut off her nose or ears.

The United Nations says there are 5,000 honor killings every year in the Muslim world. The London Guardian reported in November 2004 on a survey conducted by the Egyptian government that found that one in three women has been beaten by her husband. Eighty-six percent of the women in the sample regarded this as normal.

A large majority of women believe that refusal to have sex with their husband is grounds for a beating. In the survey reported in the London Guardian, 26 percent of women in their 20s responded they believe they deserve a beating if they burn dinner. Forty-two percent believe they deserve a beating if they spend too much money. Sixty-five percent believe they deserve a beating if they talk to another man.

I find these numbers frightening. Well-armed with facts and logic, you might be able to convince me that the "tiny extremist minority" of Islam is indeed a "minority," strictly speaking. But a "tiny" minority? I'm afraid I just don't buy it.

The good news about the Muslim cartoon riots

Wed Mar 8, 7:09 PM ET

Now how many people have been slaughtered along with buildings and cars torched because hundreds of thousands Muslims object to a few non-Muslims in a secular country exercising their right of free speech?

It is hard to keep count. We may need to set up a macabre pari-mutual accounting board that totals the people killed year to date because Islamic guys wake up grouchy.

How much has the cause of freedom and democracy been set back? A very long way.

The American press unanimously and pusillanimously decided not to reprint the cartoons.

That sweeping decision to run up the white flag proves that there is a gutless press oligopoly in this nation and that is not good for any of us.

However, there is a bright side to all of this believe it or not.

Neither my Dictionary of Quotations nor Google tell me who said this, but there is a succinct quote that applies to this situation:

"History is the recordation of the race between education and catastrophe."

In this case, catastrophe for us is to know too little about the Muslim religion. Many nations have learned to their sorrow what it means to have a large group of Muslims as their neighbors, immigrants, or conquerors.

There are endless publications attempting to warn the American people that the Muslim religion is unlike any other religion or philosophy in the world (see: "The West's Last Chance" by Tony Blankley).

But none of those writings could have made the point as vividly as has the Muslim reaction to the cartoons. Millions more now understand that the Muslim position is that things should be their way or no way.

Every other religion or philosophy of which I am aware: Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Confucianism, Sikh, even Shinto, attempt to inculcate into their adherents an internal scheme of socializing principles designed to overcome their "sinful" impulses with "saintly" conduct. Such internal policing also makes them better neighbors.

It is true that there is a long gruesome history of groups subscribing to religion getting hijacked into wars when the economics of the situation happen to coincide with religious affiliations.

The Irish Catholic-Protestant conflict sadly comes to mind.

But all such wars are in direct conflict with the express tenets of their religion.

Not so with the Muslims. While the Muslim religion does inculcate a strong element of self-control (the internal Jihad), there the similarity ends.

The Muslim religion is now and, ever since a few years after its founding in Saudi Arabia, has been a warrior religion just like the Spartans of ancient Greece (see: "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" by Gibbons).

Ever since about 550 A.D., Muslim armies have been on the march, plundering nation after nation, flourishing not as much by their own creativity or hard work but by harnessing the talent and resources of those they militarily subjugate.

The Christian Bible abjures its adherents to: not murder; turn the other cheek; love your neighbor; and to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

The Koran (Qu'ran) says:

Surah 8.65 "Oh Prophet! Exhort believers to fight."

Surah 62.6-7 "Oh ye Jews, if claim that Allah favors you over all mankind, then long for death ..."

Surah 5.51 "Take not Jews and Christians as your friends."

Surah 2.191 "Slay the aggressors (people who defend themselves) wherever you find them" (including the Olympics).

Surah 4.91 ... Then take them and kill them wherever you find them. Against such we have been given a clear warrant."

Surah 2.216 "Warfare is ordained for you."

Surah 3.151 "We shall cast terror in the hearts of those who disbelieve."

Surah 4.56 "Disbelievers we shall expose to the fire."

Surah 17.16-17 "We annihilate townships who disobey the commandments. We have destroyed many generations. We annihilate with complete annihilation."

Non-Muslims ignore the plain language of the Koran and the murderous conduct of so many that believe that it is the literal word of god at our peril.

The Koran is a blueprint for the domination of the Earth by a Muslim population that now numbers about 1.5 billion around the globe.

Living off of oil money sent to the Saudis, they are exporting murderous extremism throughout the rest of the world.

The optimists among us are attempting to split the Muslims between the extremists and the "moderates."

"Moderate Muslim" seems to be an oxymoron on which we should not base the future of our culture.

Author Victor Davis Hanson has written, "A War Like No Other," which chronicles the decades-long death struggle between the democratic, civilized, and wealthy Athenians vs. the unprosperous though warlike Spartans; a parallel to the present conflict between the Islamacists and the west.

Guess who won that war?

Stirling is a retired superior court judge who now practices law with the firm of Garrison & McInnis. He is a former Army officer, member of the San Diego City Council, the California State Assembly and the State Senate. Send comments to larry.stirling@sddt.com. Comments may be published as letters to the Editor.

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