“Moderate Muslims”

How the so-called moderate Muslims are part of the problem of Islamic extremism and terrorism…

• US Muslims are up to their old tricks: New York: Muslims complain about “racial profiling” in wake of arrests in major jihad terror plot
• Muslim engineer at European Organization for Nuclear Research “expressed a desire to carry out attacks”
• Toronto 18 jihad leader confesses to 9/11-style bomb plot

But not to worry: as always, none of the above has anything to do with Islam. You know the routine: can’t blame the religion of a gazillion people for…., can’t tar all Muslims with….,  Islam is not a monolith…..blah blah….

Islam Watch

We all remember a fateful day of September 11, 2001, when 19 Muslim men, proclaiming the greatness of Allah, “Allahu Akbar”, acted on the dictates of their faith.

Pictured: Al Qaeda regularly murder people they consider enemy collaborators, or infidels, or not “True” muslims. (Pat Dollard)

Related Link:

• Father Zakarias Botros: Muslims pretend to be nice people

But, do you ever recall loud denouncements from all Islamic institutions that soundly rebuked these hotheads? Do you remember if mosques, from Quetta to Cairo, repudiated Osama Bin Laden, and ever issued fatwas against Mullah Omar? Do you marvel at the facts that 99% of Muslims, who call themselves “moderates”, ever swiftly showed their solidarity with the western world, making the remaining 1% (”extremists”) outcaste and pariah of the society?

Hmmmmm… Me neither!

Nevertheless, I do remember bellicose statements, that could ever be called upon the discourse, to exempt Islam from all actions taken in its very name. I do remember a sizable population of Muslims calling it an inside job by the Bush Administration, or a Jewish plot — a conspiracy theory still believed by large masses of Muslims. And of those Muslims, who believed it was a Muslim act, I do remember them telling that Islam is unquestionably a “Religion of Peace and universal-brotherhood”, and that some disgruntled youths, misguided by the mullahs, were exploited to inflict harm upon us, and bring dishonor upon the glorious name of Islam. Whatever we do, we ought not to hold Islam liable?

Moderate Muslims’ Silent as a tomb!

I did not see any of those good moderate Muslims, who are so touchy about an unkind word directed at Islam, were ever outraged at the fact that Muslim youths had besmirched Islam’s glory. I did not even see these same moderate Muslims being infuriated at Osama bin Laden for insinuating that bin Laden was driven by the true Islamic faith; they never called for Mullah Omar’s expulsion from Pakistan. I also did not see these same moderate Muslims ever pressure the Pakistani establishments to expel the masterminds of the 1999 hijackings or even Dawood Ibrahim or the members of Lashkar-e-Tayyeba, who authored carnage in New Delhi and Mumbai. I did not see these moderate Muslims to pressure Saudi Arabia and the UAE to terminate their diplomatic relations with the Taliban and to their funding of Jihadi outfits in Pakistan. These moderate Muslims just stood by in pious silence!

All these actions are left to infidel governments to take up and pursue. These good Muslims just sit by passively, and they surely rose in vociferous or violent protests if Islam is ever implicated in the analysis of Islamic terrorism the world over. At that point, the fangs of moderate Muslims are bared and the quills are raised. They threaten to label us “Islamophobes” so stirringly that we, with our fetish for multiculturalism and the mazlooms [oppressed], just folded our tents and depart silently into the night. Consequently, all our analyses and actions are tempered by the desire not to inflame the “moderate Muslim Street”.

Result is Resurgent Taliban!

The Taliban is now resurgent in Afghanistan again. Dissatisfied with being restricted to the badlands of the NWFP only, they have spread to the Swat Valley and their domain reaches now within 100 miles of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, the nerve center of the Pakistani power structure. There they have unleashed unprecedented brutality by shooting Pakistani civilians, beheading Pakistani dissenters, flogging Pakistani transgressors, driving out Pakistani civilian administrators, establishing the Shariah to oppress Pakistanis, and subjecting minorities to jizya.

And pray, what is the Pakistani commentariat most exercised about? The drone attacks, which target foreign Jihadists and their hideouts! This is the same set of “moderate elements”, who have readily consumed the generous aid packages (in excess of US $10b at last count), but also those, who chafe at the prospect of any of that aid-money being used against Taliban/Al-Qaeda operatives.

These folks are not “extremists” or “Jihadists”. Indeed, they have not actively participated in acts of violence or terrorism against anyone. They are just the ‘Moderate Muslim Street’. Yet, they have been mute spectators as the shining stars of Islam rolled out the green carpet crushing Pakistani citizens in its wake, but reserved their most fiery rhetoric for occasions, when an American drone interrupts a tea-party of the Holy Beards. I have yet to hear a squeak from the “Moderate Muslim Street” decrying the Sudanese genocide in Darfur, where Sudanese Christians are being murdered by maniacal Islamists. Perhaps the moderate Muslims are exhibiting their exemplary restraints and their legendary moderation!

In conclusion, I am unimpressed by the refrain from Muslim folks, who moan that they are unfairly tarnished by the actions of a few and yet fail to denounce those very same actions so convincingly. In fact, when I see themdeflect responsibility with lame excuses and their feeble justifications, I want to treat them as a part of the problem. They knowingly or unknowingly provide cover for Islamists to operate unencumbered; and hence, they abet the crimes committed by the extremists. And, therein lies their culpability (if not complicity)!

If it oinks, it is a pig!

Let me clarify that I DO NOT advocate ANY harm or harassment of ANY person on the grounds of their faith. However, let me also clarify that I do not accept the exemptions of anyone’s ‘responsibility’ on any similar grounds. If Islam’s stature means anything to you then YOU should be the first one to denounce and debar those that tarnish it. If you fail to do so, then you have just chosen to include the swine in your society. You cannot live in a sty and not be called a pig!

Tagged as: moderate muslims, Zakaria Botros