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7 Things Every Moderate Muslim Should Believe
Townhall.com ^ | April 27, 2013 | John Hawkins

Posted on 04/27/2013 9:15:52 AM PDT by Kaslin

Before 9/11, most Americans looked at Islam as no different than any of the world's other great religions. But since that terrible day, Americans have read countless stories about crazed riots over damaged Qurans, terrorists who've murdered people in the name of Allah and violent threats over Muhammad cartoons. Quite understandably, this has caused people to become considerably more wary of Islam.

Is that fair to all the good and decent Muslims out there? No, it isn't.

But, let's also stop ignoring the obvious fact that the Islamic faith has a large, radical and violent contingent that the world's other great religions don't have. Oh, but what about the Crusades? Well it's true that the Crusades were bloody, violent and directly connected to the Christian faith. However, the last crusade ended more than 700 years ago. That same sort of fanaticism has largely died out in Christianity while it's still alive and kicking in Islam.

Anyone who can't admit that is lying to himself and everyone else.

That being said, the vast majority of Muslims are not radicals and probably like Jihadism even less than we do if only because they're more likely to be victims of it than other people. While we certainly can and should expect moderate Muslims to condemn radical Islam, it's also worth remembering that many non-Muslims are so frightened of Islam that they won't criticize radicals. Imagine how much more terrifying it must be to condemn Jihadists when you may semi-regularly run into people who think that way in your neighborhood or mosque.

All that being said, we tend to spend a lot of time talking past each other on this issue. Some people wrongly condemn all Muslims. Some Muslims treat criticism of radicals as an attack on all of Islam. Other people are so politically correct that they're afraid to address the issue at all.

So, let's shoulder past both political correctness and "Islamophobia" and have a real discussion about "moderate Muslims." We do hear the phrase "moderate Muslim" tossed around a lot; so isn't it about time that someone actually takes a crack at defining what it means?

As a non-Muslim, I consider someone to be a "moderate Muslim" if he....

1) ...Opposes terrorist attacks on civilians the world over.

2) ...Doesn't believe that damaging a Quran or a Muhammad cartoon is a legitimate reason to behave in a violent fashion.

3) ...Believes people have a right to leave the Islamic faith in peace without having to face legal repercussions or violence.

4) ...Rejects wife beating, forced marriages, clitorectomies and violence towards women.

5) ...Thinks women have just as much of a right to be educated as men, should be able to leave the house without a male relative and should be allowed to FREELY CHOOSE whether or not they want to wear a Burqa or Hijab.

6) ...Rejects anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial and genocide against Israel.

7) ...Is against Sharia, which is a primitive, barbaric code that is pro wife-beating, pro-rape, anti-free speech, homophobic and entirely incompatible with civilized behavior.

Certainly, we could easily add more things to this list, but this seems like a good starting point because these are almost unarguable. If you're an Al-Qaeda fan, believe in murdering people over a cartoon, want to knife people who leave Islam, are fine with wife beating, think little girls shouldn't have a right to an education, want to finish what Hitler started in Israel or want to drag the whole world back to the dark ages with Sharia, it's hard to argue that you are in any way, shape or form a "moderate." Yet, there are probably more than 100 million Muslims across the world who fit some or all of those descriptions -- and if anything, that estimate is low.

It's time to start calling these radicals what they are, while separating them out from truly "moderate Muslims." Christians don't get offended when someone slams Fred Phelps and his wacky God Hates F@gs clan or a Christian nut job who murders an abortion doctor because it's understood that those freaks are way outside the mainstream of Christianity. It's time for everyone to do the same sort of thing with Islam so that good and decent Muslims aren't lumped in with these radical Jihadists whom we can never trust, accept or treat as anything other than rabid dogs.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: islam; islamicextremists; muslims; radicalmuslims; religion
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1 posted on 04/27/2013 9:15:52 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

To bad any “moderate Muslim” who believes 1 - 7 is an apostate and subject to be killed by “good Muslims”.


2 posted on 04/27/2013 9:18:49 AM PDT by PeteB570 ( Islam is the sea in which the Terrorist Shark swims. The deeper the sea the larger the shark.)
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To: Kaslin
Is that fair to all the good and decent Muslims out there?

Is there such an animal?

When I see a Muzzie condemning their radical religious nuts I give that person the benefit of the doubt.

Until that day, I learned all I need to know about "one of this world's great religion" on 9/11.

3 posted on 04/27/2013 9:19:28 AM PDT by hattend (Firearms and ammunition...the only growing industries under the Obama regime.)
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To: Kaslin
Opposes terrorist attacks on civilians the world over.

There are no civilians in this kind of war. Weasel words come from weasels.

4 posted on 04/27/2013 9:20:49 AM PDT by stboz
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To: Kaslin
And #8? A sane muslim realizes he has no place in the civilized world and that he should just stay in some stone aged cave where he belongs.

Also, this statement?

That same sort of fanaticism has largely died out in Christianity

Just because somebody calls themselves Christian, or defends some abomination in the name of Christianity, doesn't make it so.

The Crusades were not Christian. Westboro Baptist is not Christian. Mormons are not Christian.

Satan couldn't destroy Christianity by attacking it. So what he did was to flood the world with counterfeits. That was his masterpiece.

I can call my truck a jet plane, but it still won't fly.

5 posted on 04/27/2013 9:23:13 AM PDT by LouAvul
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To: Kaslin

Muslims are like Ivy. As long as it’s trimmed back it’s fine, but when it starts growing up under the roof and starts growing iunto the siding it has to be cut back drastically.

For years Musims lived in comparative piece, then their numbers grew and they started their Jihads and their BS.

They need drastic trimming.


6 posted on 04/27/2013 9:27:20 AM PDT by Venturer
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To: Kaslin

Two major points this author fails to understand.

1. The Crusades were NOT equivalent to Muslim violence. The Crusades were basically DEFENSIVE. They were an attempt to protect the Holy Lands and Christian countries against the violent onslaught of Muslim conquerors. As with most wars, there were some departures from this basically just purpose. But the real failure of the Crusades was to end them too soon, and let the Muslims overrun, conquer, murder and enslave Christians throughout the Middle East and North Africa.

2. There’s no such thing as a moderate Muslim, because Allah, Mohammed, and the Koran DEMAND that Muslims conquer and enslave the entire world and everyone in it. That’s just as true now as it was then.

Jesus didn’t go running around with a sword, cutting off heads, raping women, and enslaving people. Mohammed did. That’s what his religion is all about, if you bother to read the Koran and the basic teachings.

Islam means “submission.” Submit or die.


7 posted on 04/27/2013 9:29:25 AM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: PeteB570

It would be too bad, IF there were any ‘moderate’ Muslims.

To take a book such as the Quran or whatever the hell they call it and believe ANY of it and then to, in the same breath, profess disdain for the other perverted, demonic and oppressive parts is suspension of all belief in truth.

Their god gives them license to lie, dissemble and manipulate, all for the sake of furthering their perverted religion. Why would anyone in their right mind think anyone who professes to be a “moderate” muslim tells the truth?

Were it the truth, we would have seen a world wide condemnation replete with massive demonstrations about the events of 9/11, or any of the other Islamic terrorist actions since then, including Boston.

It is fantasy to believe they exist, it is fantasy to not believe in their heart-of-hearts they secretly wish Islam covered the world.


8 posted on 04/27/2013 9:33:00 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: Venturer

There have been some, what I’d call scholarly studies, about that very thing....about “at what levels does Islamic infestation become trouble?”....works I’ve seen put it at a couple of levels: 1-2% disruption of societal norms, 5% or more absolute chaos.


9 posted on 04/27/2013 9:35:07 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: Kaslin

A moderate Muslim is a Muslim at room temperature.


10 posted on 04/27/2013 9:35:17 AM PDT by beethovenfan (If Islam is the solution, the "problem" must be freedom.)
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To: Kaslin


11 posted on 04/27/2013 9:35:26 AM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet - Mater tua caligas exercitus gerit ;-{)
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To: Kaslin

A radical muslim will saw your head off for a YouTube video. A moderate Muslim will simply watch.


12 posted on 04/27/2013 9:36:21 AM PDT by Lurker (Violence is rarely the answer. But when it is it is the only answer.)
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To: Kaslin

Moderate Muslim, a misnomer.


13 posted on 04/27/2013 9:38:21 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Lurker

and say “NOTHING” unless cornered and forced to lie and say otherwise.


14 posted on 04/27/2013 9:38:32 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: Kaslin

“There is no such thing as moderate Islam. There is only Islam” Former President of Eqypt.


15 posted on 04/27/2013 10:00:26 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: LouAvul
Mormons are not Christian.

That is the most ignorant stupid remark and proves you know nothing about Mormons. Dunce! No excuse.

16 posted on 04/27/2013 10:53:47 AM PDT by Logical me
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To: Kaslin
"the vast majority of Muslims are not radicals and probably like Jihadism even less than we do"

That is yet to be definitively established, and, in actuality, defies the reality of everything we know.

17 posted on 04/27/2013 11:28:14 AM PDT by YHAOS
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To: Logical me
I know everything about mormons. Doctrine of Blood Atonement. Mountain Meadows Massacre. Temple ceremonies. Baptism for the dead.

It's you who are abysmally stupid. Your satanic cult is being exposed for what it is.

18 posted on 04/27/2013 12:41:42 PM PDT by LouAvul
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To: Kaslin

Moslems are violent and radical only insofar as they are believers in Islam and the Koran.


19 posted on 04/27/2013 12:44:16 PM PDT by arthurus (Read Hazlitt's Economics In One Lesson ONLINE www.fee.org/library/books/economics-in-one-lesson)
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To: Gaffer
it is fantasy to not believe in their heart-of-hearts they secretly wish Islam covered the world.

Secretly? They are pretty open about it. It is a secret only in that westerners refuse to hear or to understand.

20 posted on 04/27/2013 12:48:54 PM PDT by arthurus (Read Hazlitt's Economics In One Lesson ONLINE www.fee.org/library/books/economics-in-one-lesson)
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