The Other Muslims
This week I attended a book launching event at the Hudson Institute for “The Other Muslims: Moderate and Secular” edited by Zeyno Baran, Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Islam, Democracy, and the Future of the Muslim World. The event featured a panel of some of the contributing authors including Baran, Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, Founder and President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, and Hedieh Mirahmadi, President of the World Organization for Resource Development and Education. The purpose of the book is to warn Westerners about ignoring the ideological threat of totalitarian Islamism.
Baran explained that one of the biggest mistakes Westerners make in looking at the conflict against radical Muslims around the world is not differentiating between the religion of Islam, and the political ideology of Islamism. She went on to say that defining “moderate Muslims” as simply those that are non-violent is a flawed method of identification. Mainstream Muslim organizations in the US such as CAIR or ISNA seem like moderate non-violent groups, but in fact they support the Islamist ideology and the violence that comes with following that ideology.
Baran says that moderate Muslims are those live their lives understanding that Islam is compatible with democracy, the Rule of Law, and reverence for human rights. According to Mirahmadi, most of the Muslim organizations she has had experience with in her life are set up to make the United States a Muslim state. The Qur’an comes before the US Constitution in many of these institutions. Dr. Jasser spoke about the need to separate mosque and state, and said that Americans should be free to practice their faith as long as they adhere to the Constitution.
According to the authors, real moderate Muslims struggle to have their voices heard because of the influence groups like CAIR, and because they are not the types of people who wear their religion on their sleeve. The group also agreed that the US policy makers need to support the few moderate voices who do speak out against political Islamism if there is to be any hope of winning the current conflict.
I wrote more about this topic in an article I submitted to the Young Americans for Freedom New Guard Magazine which will hopefully be published in the next few months.
Any religion that has as its core belief that if you do not become what we say you should be, we will kill you, in the name of our god, is a religion that has a tiny little god. The one true GOD is all powerful. If GOD was about forcing peaple to be a certian way than He does not need humans at all. All He needs to do is say it and it is done. GOD gave us free will because He wanted us to love and worship him from our hearts, not just our bodies. Any religion that forces their belief upon another person is in error, yes i know that includes the cathilic religion at times in its past. Christians say to the world, this is what we have, this is what we belive, we invite you to come with us. I know there is the guy out there who can’t wait to point out christians that have done bad things, but the christians denunce the actions of christians that error. Where is the denunciation by islam of islamic terrorism. They will say “we are sorry this terrorism happened” but never condem it. The silence is telling.
“few moderate” um, there are more than a few moderate muslims. Moderate muslims have to be the majority due to the meaning of the word!!! Lets face it there are crazy christians that brain wash and kill people (ever heard of the Hutaree) for nothing more the their values. It’s important to understand the moderate, but the issue is much deeper than anyone on this blog including myself understands. Ignorance does not justify anyones opinion!!!