Quantum Windbag
Gold Member
- May 9, 2010
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A well thought out and well written argument about why Islam does not need more moderate Muslims.
My favorite quote, and what I keep trying to tell all the people that defend Islam unconditionally.
Islam Needs Reformists, Not 'Moderates' - WSJ.com
I fully expect the knee jerk Left to not only accuse me of Islamaphobia, but to ignore the fact that the guy who wrote this is a Muslim. This is the kind of Muslim I support, not the extremists or the moderates. Hopefully a few people will read this and think for themselves.
"Moderate" Muslims are part of the problem. As Martin Luther King Jr. taught many white Americans, in times of moral crisis, moderation cements the status quo. Today, what Islam needs is not more "moderates" but more self-conscious "reformists." It is reformists who will bring to my faith the debate, dissent and reinterpretation that have carried Judaism and Christianity into the modern world.
Moderate Muslims, he observes, are so consumed with Western imperialism that they have distracted themselves from dealing with the imperialists inside IslamMuslims who dominate, censor, injure and murder fellow Muslims. Bin Laden and his disciples epitomize this crowd. But you do not have to be murderous to be an obstacle to reform. I will never forget the Muslim man in New Jersey who flaunted his moderate credentials by leading an interfaith dialogue group, yet who, behind closed doors, revealed a purist's insularity. On the letterhead of his interfaith initiative, he presented me with a list of phrases and paragraphs to be banned from my 2004 book, "The Trouble with Islam Today." "You want my publishers to edit out these thoughts?" I asked, incredulously.
"Oh, yes," he confirmed. "Otherwise, you're like a fascist."
My favorite quote, and what I keep trying to tell all the people that defend Islam unconditionally.
t is time for those who love liberal democracy to join hands with Islam's reformists. Here is a clue to who's who: Moderate Muslims denounce violence committed in the name of Islam but insist that religion has nothing to do with it; reformist Muslims, by contrast, not only deplore Islamist violence but admit that our religion is used to incite it.
Islam Needs Reformists, Not 'Moderates' - WSJ.com
I fully expect the knee jerk Left to not only accuse me of Islamaphobia, but to ignore the fact that the guy who wrote this is a Muslim. This is the kind of Muslim I support, not the extremists or the moderates. Hopefully a few people will read this and think for themselves.