Off-Topic: Is there such a thing as a "moderate"…
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Name:
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MartiniMan
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Subject:
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Is there such a thing as a "moderate"…
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Date:
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8/18/2010 8:50:08 AM
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I got to thinking this morning as I was driving into work and listening to the radio. A gentleman had called in and was expressing his view that the Islamic Center/Mosque near the WTC site and in a building where debris from one of the planes came crashing down wasn't a freedom of religion issue but a national security issue. He went further and expressed his opinion that we should close all mosques because they represent a national security risk because so many are a hotbed of radicalism. Obviously his is a minority opinion but he was not foaming at the mouth but was very calm and measured in defending this opinion.
What ensued was a conversation about the distinction between "moderate" Muslims and radical Muslims. And that got me to thinking, is there really any such thing as a "moderate" Muslim? There is no doubt that the proposal to build a $100 million Islamic cultural center and mosque near one of the 911 sites has sparked a renewed debate in this country about the nature of Islam. The question is why.
One issue that I think is driving this is we are being told by the government media and the likes of Mayor Bloomberg and that Imam Rauf is in fact a moderate. And he is obviously tied to the Obama administration as is evidenced by tax dollars being used to fund a junket to the middle east. And yet when you read what he has said about the 911 attacks being our fault, his repeated refusal to state that Hamas is a terrorist organization, his lies to the zoning commission and his refusal to reveal where the mosque funding will come from many Americans rightly are rethinking the concept of a moderate Muslim. If Imam Rauf is a moderate given what he is proposing to do and has said can we trust any so-called moderate Muslim? In essence is he giving moderate Muslims a bad name?
The more I thought about it the more I think we are using the wrong terminology. If you examine the history of Islam and the fundamental tenets of this religion it is obvious that any true adherent to Islam cannot be moderate, at least when viewed from the lens of modern society. Maybe in the 7th century one could claim to be moderate because you didn't actively kill the infidel with the sword but believed in the caliphate and sharia law. But under the lens of modernity no one who believes this can be considered moderate whether they will act in violence or not.
What I believe we need to do is to differentiate between "secular" Muslims and religious Muslims and get rid of the entire concept of moderate. I know and am friends with a number of Muslims, some of whom work for me, and they are not moderate, they are secular. Their religion is not the focal point of their lives. They do not pray five times a day. Most of them eat pork. Some are married to Christians and allow their children to be raised as Christians. All are great Americans who love this country and despise radical Islam. I also know a few devout Muslims and none can be described as moderate. They loathe Jews and strongly believe in the restoration of the caliphate and the imposition of Sharia law. They would never sanction violence to get what they want but in my opinion their views can never be called moderate.
So I propose we stop using the term moderate to describe any devout Muslim. It is an oxymoron. And when we encounter a practicing Muslim that eschews violence, as few as there seem to be, we should just call them Muslim. And when we encounter a non-practicing Muslim (which is in fact the vast majority of the so-called moderate Muslims) we should call them secular Muslims.
On a final note, what I have been hearing from almost every quarter is that while Imam Rauf may have a legal right to build the mosque but that doesn't make it right. I hear a lot about religious freedom and I am reminded of something Pope John Paul the Great said, "Freedom is not the right to do what you want, but the right to do what you ought". They may have a legal right to build there but the vast majority of Americans agree that they ought not to build there, and justifiably so.
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