Finding Moderate Muslims - More Questions

At "[Finding Moderate Muslims:] Do You Believe in Modernity?" I formulated questions to ask of Muslims to discern whether they are moderates or not. This blog collects questions and demands formulated by others.

The United America Committee has issued a list of danger signs to discern signs of radical Islam:

1. Justification of any Islamic Terrorism, Palestinian or otherwise
2. Supporting or refusing to condemn Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, Hamas, or other terrorists or terrorist organizations by name
3. Promoting jihad for Muslims to fight against what they determine is "injustice" or "aggression"
4. Demands for Sharia law in the West, or denying that Sharia forbids equal rights for women and members of religions other than Islam
5. Demanding that Americans accommodate the public expression of Islamic laws, customs, and practices that conflict with, or are harmful to American laws, customs, and practices
6. Denying that Muslims were involved in the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and other attacks around the world
7. Refusal to cooperate with or inciting others not to cooperate with authorities or standard security procedures
8. Branding progressive Muslims or Muslims of different opinions as apostates.
9. Refusal to interact, converse, or socialize with non-Muslims

Also, this is a good place to note the "ten commandments of democracy" formulated in 2002 by Naser Khader, the Danish parliamentarian of Syrian Muslim origins:

1. We must all separate politics and religion, and we must never place religion above the laws of democracy.
2. We must all respect that all people have equal rights regardless of sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation or religious beliefs.
3. No person must ever incite to hatred, and we must never allow hatred to enter our hearts.
4. No person must ever use or encourage violence – no matter how frustrated or wronged we feel, or how just our cause.
5. We must all make use of dialogue - always.
6. We must all show respect for the freedom of expression, also of those with whom we disagree the most.
7. No person can claim for themselves or assign to others a place apart, neither as superior persons, as inferior persons or as eternal victims.
8. We must all treat other people's national and religious symbols as we wish them to treat ours – flag-burning and graffiti on churches, mosques and synagogues are insults that hinder dialogue and increase the repression of the other party.
9. We must all mind our manners in public. Public space is not a stage on which to vent one's aggressions or to spread fear and hate, but should be a forum for visions and arguments, where the best must win support.
10. We must all stand up for our opponent if he or she is subjected to spiteful treatment.

(October 5, 2005)

Dec. 16, 2005 update: Tarek Heggy, the liberal Egyptian political thinker, worries about the impending U.S. government dialogue with his country's leading Islamist force, the Muslim Brotherhood. He proposes a list of questions for American diplomats to ask their would-be interlocutors. With his approval, I have edited these for reasons of space and style.

1. Could a Copt (an Egyptian Christian) in principle be elected president of Egypt?
2. Would you follow the Saudi model of segregating girls from boys in schools and universities?
3. Beach tourism generates in excess of 75% of Egypt's tourism revenues; what are your views about alcoholic drinks, gambling, and casinos, and about women dressing as they choose?
4. What is your opinion concerning the peace treaties between Egypt and Israel and between Jordan and Israel?
5. What do you think of the different forms of economic cooperation between Egypt and Israel, such as the Qualifying Industrial Zones?
6. How do you describe the killing of Israeli civilians in suicidal operations by Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad?
7. Is Sayyid Qutb's doctrine of Hakimiya (à system of government based exclusively on Allah's law that rejects democracy and human law) still your political goal?
8. What are your views on women occupying high governmental offices?
9. What are your views on George W. Bush's vision of Israel and Palestine living peacefully next to each other? If it were achieved, would you accept the right of Israel to exist? Would you accept that the Jewish section of Jerusalem is Israel's capital?
10. Egypt's legal system since 1883 has been based on the Code Napoléon. Do you have plans to change it? Do you endorse physical punishments, such as are used in Saudi Arabia?
11. The Egyptian banking system is based on the notion of interest; would you keep it?
12. Is Iran today a force for stability or instability?

Heggy concludes by warning Americans talking to the Muslim Brotherhood to be aware of the latter's likely use of taqiya, or dissimulation. This, he says, is permission to lie, if so doing "would assist them to ultimately defeat the infidels."

Jan. 1, 2006 update: Thirty questions asked of applications for citizenship (Gesprächsleitfaden für die Einbürgerungsbehörden) by the German state of Baden-Württemberg have been posted.

Baden-Württemberg: Gesprächsleitfaden für die Einbürgerungsbehörden

Bekenntnis zur freiheitlichen demokratischen Grundordnung nach dem Staatsangehörigkeitsgesetz (StAG)

Gesprächsleitfaden für die Einbürgerungsbehörden

Stand 01.09.2005

Name, Vorname und ggf. Geburtsname des Einbürgerungsbewerbers:

Geburtsdatum: Nationalität:

Vorbemerkung

Das Bekenntnis zur freiheitlichen demokratischen Grundordnung des Grundgesetzes für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland ist Einbürgerungsvoraussetzung nach § 10 Abs. 1 Satz 1 Nr. 1 StAG. Entsprechendes gilt im Rahmen der Ermessenseinbürgerung. Es darf deshalb keineswegs als Formalie gehandhabt werden, die mit der Unterschrift unter die Bekenntniserklärung erfüllt ist. Soweit die Einbürgerungsbehörde Zweifel hat, ob der Einbürgerungsbewerber den Inhalt seiner Erklärung wirklich verstanden hat und ob sie seiner inneren Überzeugung entspricht, führt sie ein Gespräch mit ihm unter Verwendung dieses Leitfadens. Die Ergebnisse des Gesprächs sind zu dokumentieren und vom Einbürgerungsbewerber zu unterschreiben. Dabei sind auch Erläuterungen zu den jeweiligen Antworten zu erfragen und festzuhalten. Der Einbürgerungsbewerber ist darauf hinzuweisen, dass unwahre Angaben als Täuschung der Einbürgerungsbehörde gewertet werden und - auch noch nach Jahren - zur Rücknahme der Einbürgerung führen können. Die Unterzeichnung der Bekenntnis- und Loyalitätserklärung nach Nr. 10.1.1.1 der vorläufigen Anwendungshinweise des BMI zum StAG bleibt unberührt; das Gleiche gilt für die Ergänzung zu Nrn. 8.1.2.5 und 9.1.2.1 der vorläufigen Anwendungshinweise.

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1. Das Bekenntnis zur freiheitlichen demokratischen Grundordnung des Grundgesetzes für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland umfasst die Werteordnung des Grundgesetzes, die inhaltsgleich für alle Staaten der Europäischen Union gilt. Dazu gehören unter anderem

· der Schutz der Menschenwürde

· das Gewaltmonopol des Staates, das heißt, außer dem Staat darf in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland niemand Gewalt gegen einen anderen anwenden, es sei denn in Notwehr. Der Staat selbst darf Gewalt nur auf Grund einer gesetzlichen Ermächtigung anwenden

· sowie die Gleichberechtigung von Mann und Frau.

Entsprechen diese Grundsätze Ihren persönlichen Vorstellungen?

2. Was halten Sie von folgenden Aussagen?

· "Demokratie ist die schlechteste Regierungsform, die wir haben, aber die beste, die es gibt."

· "Die Menschheit hat noch nie eine so dunkle Phase wie unter der Demokratie erlebt. Damit der Mensch sich von der Demokratie befreien kann, muss er zuerst begreifen, dass die Demokratie den Menschen nichts Gutes geben kann ..."

3. In Filmen, Theaterstücken und Büchern werden manchmal die religiösen Gefühle von Menschen der unterschiedlichen Glaubensrichtungen verletzt. Welche Mittel darf der Einzelne Ihrer Meinung nach anwenden, um sich gegen solche Verletzungen seines Glaubens zu wehren, und welche nicht?

4. Wie stehen Sie zu Kritik an einer Religion? Halten Sie diese für zulässig? Setzen Sie sich damit auseinander?

5. In Deutschland können politische Parteien und Vereine wegen verfassungsfeindlicher Betätigung verboten werden. Würden Sie trotz eines solchen Verbots die Partei oder den Verein doch unterstützen? Unter welchen Umständen?

6. Wie stehen Sie zu der Aussage, dass die Frau ihrem Ehemann gehorchen soll und dass dieser sie schlagen darf, wenn sie ihm nicht gehorsam ist?

7. Halten Sie es für zulässig, dass ein Mann seine Frau oder seine Tochter zu Hause einschließt, um zu verhindern, dass sie ihm in der Öffentlichkeit "Schande macht"?

8. In Deutschland kann die Polizei bei gewalttätigen Auseinandersetzungen zwischen Eheleuten einschreiten und zur Abwehr von weiteren Gefahren den Täter für einige Tage aus der Wohnung verweisen? Was halten Sie davon?

9. Halten Sie es für einen Fortschritt, dass Männer und Frauen in Deutschland kraft Gesetzes gleichberechtigt sind? Was sollte der Staat Ihrer Meinung nach tun, wenn Männer dies nicht akzeptieren?

10. In Deutschland kann jeder bei entsprechender Ausbildung nahezu jeden Beruf ergreifen. Was halten Sie davon? Sind Sie der Meinung, dass bestimmte Berufe nur Männern oder nur Frauen vorbehalten sein sollten? Wenn ja, welche und warum?

11. Welche Berufe sollte Ihrer Meinung nach eine Frau auf keinen Fall ausüben? Hätten Sie bei bestimmten Berufen Schwierigkeiten, eine Frau als Autoritätsperson anzuerkennen?

12. In Deutschland kann jeder selbst entscheiden, ob er sich lieber von einem Arzt oder einer Ärztin behandeln lässt. In bestimmten Situationen besteht diese Wahlmöglichkeit jedoch nicht: Notfall, Schichtwechsel im Krankenhaus. Würden Sie sich in einem solchen Fall auch von einer Ärztin (männlicher Einbürgerungsbewerber) oder einem Arzt (Einbürgerungsbewerberin) untersuchen oder operieren lassen?

13. Man hört immer wieder, dass Eltern ihren volljährigen Töchtern verbieten, einen bestimmten Beruf zu ergreifen oder einen Mann ihrer Wahl zu heiraten. Wie stehen Sie persönlich zu diesem Verhalten? Was würden Sie tun, wenn Ihre Tochter einen Mann anderen Glaubens heiraten oder eine Ausbildung machen möchte, die Ihnen nicht gefällt?

14. Was halten Sie davon, dass Eltern ihre Kinder zwangsweise verheiraten? Glauben Sie, dass solche Ehen mit der Menschenwürde vereinbar sind?

15. In Deutschland gehört der Sport- und Schwimmunterricht zum normalen Schulunterricht. Würden Sie Ihre Tochter daran teilnehmen lassen? Wenn nein: Warum nicht?

16. Wie stehen Sie dazu, dass Schulkinder an Klassenausflügen und Schullandheimaufenthalten teilnehmen?

17. Ihre volljährige Tochter/Ihre Frau möchte sich gerne so kleiden wie andere deutsche Mädchen und Frauen auch. Würden Sie versuchen, dass zu verhindern? Wenn ja: Mit welchen Mitteln?

18. Bei Einbürgerungsbewerberinnen: Ihre Tochter möchte sich gerne so kleiden wie andere deutsche Mädchen und Frauen auch, aber Ihr Mann ist dagegen? Was tun Sie?

19. Ihre Tochter/Schwester kommt nach Hause und erzählt, sie sei sexuell belästigt worden. Was tun Sie als Vater/Mutter/Bruder/Schwester?

20. Ihr Sohn/Bruder kommt nach Hause und erzählt, er sei beleidigt worden. Was tun Sie als Vater/Mutter/Bruder/Schwester?

21. Erlaubt das Grundgesetz Ihrer Meinung nach, seine Religion zu wechseln, also seine bisherige Glaubensgemeinschaft zu verlassen und ohne Religion zu leben oder sich einer anderen Religion zuzuwenden? Was halten Sie davon, wenn man wegen eines solchen Religionswechsels bestraft würde (z.B. mit dem Verlust des Erbrechts)?

22. Sie erfahren, dass Leute aus Ihrer Nachbarschaft oder aus Ihrem Freundes- oder Bekanntenkreis einen terroristischer Anschlag begangen haben oder planen. Wie verhalten Sie sich? Was tun sie?

23. Sie haben von den Anschlägen am 11. September 2001 in New York und am 11. März 2004 in Madrid gehört. Waren die Täter in Ihren Augen Terroristen oder Freiheitskämpfer? Erläutern Sie Ihre Aussage.

24. In der Zeitung wird manchmal über Fälle berichtet, in denen Töchter oder Ehefrauen von männlichen Familienangehörigen wegen "unsittlichen Lebenswandels" getötet wurden, um die Familienehre wieder herzustellen. Wie stehen Sie zu einer solchen Tat?

25. Was halten Sie davon, wenn ein Mann in Deutschland mit zwei Frauen gleichzeitig verheiratet ist?

26. Wie beurteilen Sie es, wenn ein verheirateter Mann aus Deutschland in seinen früheren Heimatstaat fährt und dort ein zweites Mal heiratet?

27. Manche Leute machen die Juden für alles Böse in der Welt verantwortlich und behaupten sogar, sie steckten hinter den Anschlägen vom 11. September 2001 in New York? Was halten Sie von solchen Behauptungen?

28. Ihre Tochter bewirbt sich um eine Stelle in Deutschland. Sie bekommt jedoch ein ablehnendes Schreiben. Später erfahren Sie, dass eine Schwarzafrikanerin aus Somalia die Stelle bekommen hat. Wie verhalten Sie sich?

29. Stellen Sie sich vor, Ihr volljähriger Sohn kommt zu Ihnen und erklärt, er sei homosexuell und möchte gerne mit einem anderen Mann zusammen leben. Wie reagieren Sie?

30. In Deutschland haben sich verschiedene Politiker öffentlich als homosexuell bekannt. Was halten Sie davon, dass in Deutschland Homosexuelle öffentliche Ämter bekleiden?

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Erklärung des Einbürgerungsbewerbers:

Meine Antworten und Erläuterungen zu den gestellten Fragen sind korrekt wiedergegeben und entsprechen meiner tatsächlichen inneren Einstellung. Ich hatte keine Schwierigkeiten, die Fragen zu verstehen; soweit ich sie nicht gleich verstanden habe, wurden sie mir so erklärt, dass ich alles verstanden habe.

Ich wurde ausdrücklich darauf hingewiesen, dass unwahre Angaben als Täuschung der Einbürgerungsbehörde gewertet werden und - auch noch nach Jahren - zur Rücknahme der Einbürgerung führen können, selbst wenn ich dadurch staatenlos werden sollte.

Ort, Datum, Unterschrift

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Jan. 3, 2006 update: I published an article today on the Baden-Württemberg questions (as well as another initiative, from Lower Saxony) at "Two Germans vs. Islamism."

Jan. 7, 2006 update: MilitantIslamMonitor.org has translated the above German questions into English (and I have made some small revisions).

1) The recognition of the free democratic laws of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany encompasses the values which are set forth in the Constitution, which are the same in content as those in all of the States of the European Union. The protection of human rights is one of the areas in which the State has exclusive jurisdiction over the use of force, and that only in emergency situations, which means that no person can use force against another. The State itself can only use force in the context of legally mandated enforcement of the law such as the equality of men and women. Are these concepts compatible with your personal views?

2) What is your opinion of the following statements?

• "Democracy is the worst form of government which we have, but the best which exists."
• "Humanity had never experienced such a dark phase as during democracy, but for man to free himself from democracy, he has to understand that democracy cannot give anything good to man."

3) In films, plays, and books, religious feelings are sometimes insulted of those who have different religious beliefs. According to you which methods are acceptable for individuals to use to fight against such religious insults and which not?

4) How do you feel about criticism about a religion? Do you find this permissible? Could you discuss this?

5) In Germany political parties and organizations can be banned due to their stated opposition to the constitution and rule of law. Would you, in spite of such a ban, still support such a party and such an organization? Under what circumstances?

6) What do you think of the statement that a wife must obey her husband and he can hit her if she does not obey him ?

7) Do you think it is permissible that a man shuts his wife and daughter into the house in order to prevent them from dishonoring him in public?

8) In Germany the police can intervene in a violent argument between a married couple, and in order to prevent further threats can send the aggressor out of the house for several days. What do you think about this?

9) Do you think It is progress that a men and women in Germany are equal under the law? In your opinion what should the country do when men do not accept this?

10) In Germany everyone can work in any profession according to their education. What do you think about this? Are you of the opinion that certain professions should only be reserved for men or women? If so, which and why?

11) In your opinion which profession should not be engaged in by a woman under any circumstances and why ? Do you have difficulty with accepting a woman in a position of authority in certain jobs?

12) In Germany everyone can decide for themselves if they want to be treated by a female or a male doctor. In certain situations this choice is not available: Emergency or due to a change of shift in the hospital. In such a case would you (asked of a male citizenship candidate) let yourself be treated or operated on by a female doctor or (asked of a female citizenship candidate) a male doctor?

13) People often hear that parents forbid their adult daughter to work in certain jobs or to marry a man of their choice, What are your personal views regarding this standpoint? What would you do, when your daughter marries a man who has a different religion or wants to pursue a course of study in something you disapprove of ?

14) What is your opinion of parents who push their children into forced marriages? Do you believe that such marriages are compatible with human rights?

15) In Germany, sports and swimming lessons are part of the normal school curriculum. Would you allow your daughter to participate? If not, why not?)

16) What is your stance on allowing school children to take part in school trips and overnight school vacations?

17) Your adult daughter/your wife would like to dress like other German girls and women . Would you attempt to prevent her from doing this? If so, with what methods?

18) For female citizenship candidates: Your adult daughter would very much like to dress like other girls and women too, but your husband is against it - What would you do?

19) Your daughter /sister comes home and says that she was sexually molested. What would you do as a father/mother/brother/ sister?

20) Your son/brother comes home and says that he was insulted. What would you do as father/mother/brother/sister?

21) According to you does the Constitution permit one to change their religion, or to leave their present religious community, and to live without a religion or to take on another religion. What is your opinion, when a person is punished due to such a change of religions (for example, with the loss of inheritance)?

22) You learn that people in your neighborhood or from your friend or acquaintances is has perpetrated or is planning a terrorist attack. How do you react and what do?

23) You have heard about the attacks on September 11, 2001, in New York and on March 11, 2004, in Madrid. In your eyes were the perpetrators terrorists or freedom fighters? Explain your viewpoint.

24) In the newspaper one sometimes reads about a case where a daughter or a wife is murdered because of "immoral lifestyle" in order to restore the family honor. How do you feel about such an act?

25) What do you think when a man in Germany is married to two women at the same time?

26) How do you judge it when a married man in Germany goes to his former home country and marries a second time?

27) Some people say that Jews are responsible for all the evil in the world and even claim that they were behind the attacks of 2001 in New York. What is your view of such claims?

28) Your daughter applies for a position in Germany. She receives a letter that she was not accepted. You later learn that a black African from Somalia has gotten the position. How would you react?

29) Imagine this: Your adult son comes to you and declares that he is a homosexual. He says that he would like to live together with another man. How would you react?

30) In Germany several politicians have openly proclaimed that they are homosexual. What do you think about homosexuals in Germany holding public office?

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Declaration of the Candidate for Naturalization:

My answers and explanations in regard to the questions which were asked correctly reflect and correspond to my own inner convictions. I had no difficulty understanding the questions. In the case where I did not understand, they were explained to me so that I could understand them all. I was made completely aware, that any false declarations would be considered as fraud against the citizenship officials, and could lead, even after several years, to the revocation of my citizenship even in the case where that would render me stateless.

[Place, Date, Signature]

________________________

July 11, 2006 update: Tashbih Sayyed, a well-known moderate Muslim, has a similar list (to which I have added bullets for added clarity):

Who is a moderate Muslim? Muslims who oppose theocracy, who seek democracy, who want equal rights for women and an end to child labor, honor killings, and child marriages are moderates. But there is much more to the concept than just these basics. Before enlisting an apparently moderate Muslim group in the war on Islamist terror, we must know a bit more.

• Do they believe that non-Muslims are inherently inferior?
• Do they consider religious or national identity pre-eminent?
• What do they believe about Jews and Israel?
• How do they characterize Arab terrorism in Israel?
• What is their opinion about Osama bin Laden's long list of grievances?
• Do they consider the war on terror a war on Islam?

Dec. 15, 2006 update: "A Proposed Charter of Muslim Understanding" offers a different approach; it drafts out an outlook moderate Muslims should subscribe to. It was written by Sam Solomon, identified by the Jerusalem Post as a human rights activist who "was born in the Middle East, became a renowned Islamic scholar and went on to become a leading imam and emir with the authority to issue fatwas" and by Christian World News as "a former Muslim scholar in the Middle East and now a leading Christian apologist in Europe." Gerald Batten, member of the European Parliament for the UK Independence Party, who also launched the project in Strasbourg on December 13, wrote the charter's introduction.

In summary, it calls for:

1. Respect for other religions and their adherents.
2. Educate Muslims to honor all civilizations, cultures, and traditions.
3. Commit to the upholding the value of freedom, and in particular freedom of belief and expression, including the freedom to leave Islam.
4. Prohibit the right to issue fatwa that result in violence.
5. End the concept of violent, physical jihad.
6. Prohibit all acts of terrorism.
7. Fight terrorism.
8. Foster better relations with non-Muslims.
9. End discrimination against Christians and Jews, the practice of takfir (declaring someone an infidel), and taqiya(dissimulation).
10. Issue new interpretations of Koranic verses that call for violence against non-Muslims.

Columnist

Apr. 5, 2007 update: Angel Rabasa, Cheryl Benard, Lowell H. Schwartz, and Peter Sickle offer a series of questions in their new study, Building Moderate Muslim Networks (RAND Corporation).

1. Does the group (or individual) support or condone violence? If it does not support or condone violence now, has it supported or condoned it in the past?
2. Does it support democracy? And if so, does it define democracy broadly in terms of individual rights?
3. Does it support internationally recognized human rights? Does it make any exceptions (e.g., regarding freedom of religion)?
4. Does it believe that changing religions is an individual right? Does it believe the state should enforce the criminal-law component of shari'a?
5. Does it believe the state should enforce the civil-law component of shari'a? Or does it believe there should be non-shari'a options for those who prefer civil-law matters to be adjudicated under a secular legal system?
6. Does it believe that members of religious minorities should be entitled to the same rights as Muslims?
7. Does it believe that a member of a religious minority could hold high political office in a Muslim majority country? Does it believe that members of religious minorities are entitled to build and run institutions of their faith (churches and synagogues) in Muslim majority countries?
8. Does it accept a legal system based on nonsectarian legal principles?

Nov. 26, 2007 update: Zuhdi Jasser, a leading American moderate Muslim, has nine questions to ask about schools, to differentiate the Islamist from the non-Islamist:

1. How does the school teach American history and the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights? What is taught about the struggle of our founding fathers against theocracy? Is European Enlightenment ideology taught? Are students encouraged to learn from non-Muslim philosophers especially those who influenced our founding fathers and taught liberty and freedom?

2. Are students taught that sharia is only personal or that it also specifically guides governmental law? Does their answer change whether Muslims are a minority or a majority?

3. Do they view non-Islamic private and public schools as part of a culture of "immorality" and decadence since they are not Islamicized or can non-Islamic schools be morally and equally virtuous?

4. Do they teach their children that "being American" and being "free" is about moral corruption or is being American and free about loving the nation in which they live and sharing equal status before the law regardless of faith tradition?

5. Is complete religious freedom a central part of faith and the practice of religion? In the Islamic school, how are children treated who refuse to participate in school faith practices?

6. Are the children taught Muslim exclusivism with regards to the attainment of paradise in the Hereafter? From that, are the children also taught that government and public institutions must thus be "Islamic" in order for the community as a whole to be able to enter the gates of Heaven?

7. How are student discussions, debate, and intellectual discourses approached regarding American domestic and foreign policy? Do the teachers have a political agenda? Does that agenda demonstrate a dichotomy between Islamist interests and American interests?

8. Is the historical period of Muslim rule of Spain (Andalusia) taught in the context of the history of the world during the Middle Ages or is it looked upon as superior to current day American ideology even after the advances of the Enlightenment?

9. Is the pledge of allegiance administered every day at the beginning of the school day?

Oct. 6, 2008 update: Robert Spencer, a top American analyst of Islam, offers his ten criteria to distinguish a moderate Muslim:

1. Acknowledge the existence of and repudiate the traditional Islamic imperative, taught by all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence that Muslims recognize as orthodox, to impose Islamic law upon non-Muslims, whether by force or by stealth.
2. Renounce any intention, now or in the future, to replace the U.S. Constitution with Islamic law.
3. Clarify, and call upon other Muslims in America to clarify, what is meant by the words "terrorism" and innocent" in Muslim condemnations of terrorism, so that it is clear that what is being condemned is the murder of American and other non-combatants by Muslims acting in the name of Islamic jihad.
4. Repudiate the idea that Muslims have a divine mandate to force, when possible, Jews, Christians, and other "People of the Book" to pay a special religion-based tax from which Muslims are exempt (Qur'an 9:29).
5. Call upon Muslims in America to institute comprehensive, honest, and transparent programs in mosques and Islamic schools, teaching the virtues of the non-establishment of religion, and teaching directly against Islamic supremacism and the idea that Muslims must fight against Jews and Christians until they "feel themselves subdued" (Qur'an 9:29).
6. Call upon Muslims in America to institute comprehensive, honest, and transparent programs in mosques and Islamic schools, teaching against honor killing, and against the idea—which is enshrined in Islamic law—that a parent faces no penalty for killing his or her own child (see 'Umdat al-Salik o1.1-2).
7. Call upon Muslims worldwide, including in Saudi Arabia, to end all institutionalized discrimination against and harassment of non-Muslims, and to allow churches and other houses of worship to be built in majority-Muslim countries with an ease comparable to that with which mosques are currently built in Western countries.
8. Repudiate the idea that a Muslim who renounces Islam and adopts any other faith or no faith at all should be killed—as is the teaching of Muhammad and all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence—and call upon Muslim groups in America to teach the freedom of conscience as a God-given right in American mosques and Islamic schools.
9. Call upon Muslims in America and worldwide to drop the traditional and authoritative Islamic prohibition of marriage between non-Muslim men and Muslim women, and to repudiate and teach against the idea of divinely sanctioned wife-beating (Qur'an 4:34).
10. Condemn Hamas and Hizballah as terrorist organizations, and the Islamic Republic of Iran for its continuing the barbaric practice of stoning people to death. Call upon Muslim groups to teach against stoning as a punishment for adultery or anything else in American mosques and Islamic schools.

Dec. 13, 2015 update: John Cavanaugh, a reader, suggests these questions to smoke out Islamists:

1. Do you support the use of violence or military conquest to impose sharia law on others?
2. In your opinion, should the United States Constitution be subordinated to sharia law?
3. Do you believe that sharia police should patrol Muslim-majority neighborhoods in order to enforce conformity with sharia law?
4. Do you support waging armed conflict against infidels who deny the divine authority of your faith?
5. Do you support the enslavement of those who deny the truth of your faith?
6. Suppose someone converted from your religion to another religion; should this convert be punished by execution, flogging with a whip or stick, or not at all?
7. Do you believe that blasphemy against what you hold most sacred should be punished by execution, flogging with a whip or stick, or not at all?
8. Suppose that two adults had voluntary sexual relations, but they were not married in accord with your religious views; in your opinion, should they be executed?
9. Do you support the crucifixion, mutilation, or dismemberment of thieves?
10. Do you believe that it should be illegal for women to drive automobiles? Work outside the home? Travel in buses or subways with men? Or appear in public with their faces uncovered?
11. Suppose that a husband believed that his wife had acted very badly; do you believe that he should be allowed to hit her?
12. Suppose that someone acted very badly and brought dishonor upon his or her family; should a family member be allowed to kill the person who dishonored the family?
13. If someone drinks alcohol or gambles, should she or he be flogged as punishment?
14. Suppose that deceiving others in an immigration interview could further a goal of religious conquest. If so, would it be reasonable for others to trust that you have answered all questions with completely truthfulness?

May 10, 2016 update: Researchers at the Swiss Social Research Institute (SifG) in Zurich have developed software, Radicalization Profiling (or Ra-Prof) with a 42-question survey for schoolteachers, social workers and police officers to recognize the signs of students turning into Islamists. Questions ask about students refusing to participate in co-ed gym classes, sharing Islamic State propaganda videos, becoming withdrawn, or struggling with their studies.