We are the moderate muslims

Submitted by Homefront (Australia), Sep 12, 2010 at 20:33

Dr Pipes,

One could see as many do the approach you take to partitioning the Islamic world into Islamists and moderate muslims as ethically laudable though operationally suicidal. I think it is the latter (the suicidal part) which I have the most trouble with. From time to time it has been necessary to partition the world and even our own societies simple to insure the survival of our way of life. In this particular instance I think a political divorce from the Islamic world might be in order.

I can remember a documentary on multiculturalism in the UK where a British Conservative MP stated that "In order to have peace in one's society we must have equality before the law". This much withered nag of a statement lies at the heart of the rule of law and the western world (or at least the Anglosphere). By way of contrast Islam demands that in order to have peace in ones society Muslims must occupy a superior status in the eyes of the law. this only logically follows the Quranic edict of their superiority in the eyes of Allah. As it is in heaven so shall it be on earth is the logical underpinning of this I suppose. This sharia principle though deletorious to the aforementioned central pillar of western civilisation has been all but entirely conceded operationally by the western liberal elite. Tolerance trumps equality apparently. The more optimistic westerners like myself tether their metaphorical carts to the withered nag of the rule of law in the hopes that its continued erosion will mean our eiltes will one day be replaced by way of a rebellion violent or otherwise.

This is however unlikely since the media and the education system have designs upon stopping this form of reaction. I contrast your optimism with the media coverage that the anti Corboda house movement has recieved overseas. In Australia where I live the pro Cordoba house demonstrators were "protesting for religious tolerance" and numbered alternatively in the hundreds or the thousands across competing news reports. The anti Cordoba house protesters were "anti Islamic" protesters whose numbers were not disclosed. Though there probably were proportionately a large bundle of Islamists in the group of pro Cordoba protesters and who wanted anything but religious tolerence but rather Islamic exceptionalism and supremacism - do not expect the media to report this fact anytime soon.

Your belief that the moderate muslims are the solution to the existential crisis that Islam poses to the west might simply place you as one of those westerners whom Mark Steyn says have in effect become the "moderate muslims". That is it puts you in a position where you are the one making the excuses for the inexcusable acts that muslims execute in the name of their faith. The excuses that muslims in their growing feelings of strength and confidence feel that they no longer have to make. Steyn more correctly labels the "moderate muslims" as quiescent muslims who have learnt to tolerate the extremists in their midst and are largely politically nonoperative.

I wonder if whether truly we are on a similar trajectory to become as lowly and irrelevant as these quiescent serfs that make up the bulk of the Islamic world. All I can say is that I will not peacefully settle into the second class citizenship or slavery or death than the Islamic faith has planned for me. I think that my violent antipathy is more politically operative than walking a tightrope between condemning and praising Islam.

Homefront.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".