Moderate Islam?

Submitted by Boston Tea Party (United States), May 26, 2015 at 22:44

Dr. Pipes,

In fair disclosure, I'm a regular reader of Robert Spencer's Jihad Watch, and tend to lean towards his view over yours. Regarding this ad campaign though, I think your points are valid, and I agree with you that the wording of this ad was not conducive to rallying allies against Islamists.

I like your idea of inviting a broad coaltion, including Muslims, to oppose Islamists (including CAIR and ISNA). I think my disagreement with you comes when you say "Radical Islam is the problem, moderate Islam is the solution." If there was a global network of radical Christian terrorists, one could legitimately urge them to embrace a "moderate" Christianity. One could point to the teachings of the Catholic church, whose official exegesis of their holy texts concludes that the death penalty is wrong in ALL cases. Other protestant denominations have similar official pronouncements that conclusively illustrate their "moderation". One could also come up with similar examples in Judaism and Buddhism, I believe. But where is the numerically significant, codified version of "moderate" Islam? It doesn't exist. You've previously said that around 15% of Muslims support the Islamists, and I think your logic was sound on that. But I don't agree with your implication that the other 85% actively embrace some "moderate" Islam. I think they just don't take their religion that seriously. I just don't see how you can hope to have any success in encouraging Muslims to support a "moderate" Islam--when that doesn't really exist in any codified, widely embraced version.

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