Active and Passive Muslims

Submitted by Concerned Buddhist (Lithuania), Sep 18, 2007 at 04:49

There are many discussions about whether there are really moderate Muslims. I think in order to clarify things one should subdivide Muslims into two broad categories:

-active Muslims who actively promote or publicize their religion, or try to make it relevant in broader social context etc.

-passive Muslims who are either not practicing or, more frequently, those whose practice is limited to personal lives/family/small communities and who do not try to propagate their religion or to render it relevant in broader social context.

Now, while there are indeed lots of moderate Muslims they are passive for the most part. Eg. passivism and escapism has very deep roots among Sufi Muslims as well among broader masses of conservative Muslims of all walks. On the other hand, among "active Muslims" moderate Muslims are indeed very little in number, especially among those living in the West, and this is really the root of the problem. And since there are relative little activism among moderate Muslims, many of Muslims who are not satisfied with the passive role have nothing to go but Islamist movements.

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