"Moderate Muslim" Is An Oxymoron!

Submitted by FM Dante (United States), May 9, 2007 at 23:09

What Daniel Pipes calls "moderate Muslims" are only Muslims that are politically moderate – one could call them "politically moderate Muslims" and we should be glad for them. They are Muslims that don't choose to follow the calls to Jihad implicit in the Koran or who, at least for now, don't agree that terrorist have sufficient Koranic justification for their kinds of violence.

But a Muslim cannot be a moderate since Islam and the Koran are not moderate. A Muslim by definition is one who has submitted his will to Allah and subscribes to the five pillars of Islam. He or she must believe the Koran is Allah's direct word and hence in particular must believe all the awful Infidel-hate mongering that pervades the Koran. If he does not believe, for instance, that all non-believers are going to hell (oft repeated in the Koran) and are the worst of creatures (98:6) he by definition cannot be a Muslim. He may not, due to circumstances, act on 98:6 or 5:98, or any of the other horrible and even violent verses but he must "hate the infidel for Allah's sake", as many imams will put it, while maintaining disingenuous friendliness among them.

Indeed, the Koran in several places orders the Muslim to never make friends with infidels (although he can do business or make treaties with them) and there must be no separation of religious ideology and government. Hence, in a democratic society Muslims are necessarily out of place and a threat to democratic values and free speech and expression (remember the murder threats for apostasy, certain literature or cartoons). The Koran also elevates Muhammad to the perfect example of a Muslim to emulate and obey.

Hence, the Koran taken together with the Hadiths that describe a lot of Muhammad's explicit hatreds and calls to violence (especially toward the Jew), we have among us, in my opinion, an ideology from hell, and any politically moderate Muslim might suddenly, with enough disaffection or anger become a violent Koran-quoting jihadist (Sudden Jihad Syndrome).

Now, I don't think it would necessarily be helpful for Dr. Pipes to say what I have written even if he knows it's true. He wants to encourage political moderation among Muslims, not upset them. In my opinion it is the moral responsibility of the brave ex-Muslims, even while claiming for safety sake their Muslim status, to work from within to change the hearts and minds of the true believers. More power to them: the only thing to do with Islam is, not reform it, but completely junk it.

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".