A failed notion, false hope, and cynical deception should at last be discarded.
They’ve enjoyed media adulation and the uncritical admiration of hopeful non-Muslims for over a quarter of a century now. Yet self-styled “moderate Muslims” and “Muslim reformers” have not delivered on their promises or substantiated their vision of Islam, and it’s time that Americans recognized the entire “moderate Muslim” endeavor for what it really is: an effort to lull them into complacency and indifference regarding the advancing jihad threat.
These mediagenic moderates offered the glittering promise of an Islam that was not violent, oppressive, or the least bit incompatible with Western secular pluralism. Relying on the total ignorance of most Americans regarding Islam, and their eagerness to be reassured that the U.S. wasn’t facing the prospect of a war that would engulf the entire world, particularly after 9/11, these smooth-talking moderates, always gentle, soft-spoken, and polished before the cameras, assured the jittery public that properly understood, Islam was peaceful.
And peace was only one manifestation of Islam’s glory. The moderates told us that Islam had a glorious past, a Golden Age, in which it pioneered societal tolerance and multiculturalism, as well as respect for intellectual inquiry and scientific exploration. Today, they told us, a handful of terrorists had twisted and hijacked its teachings, but the true Islam would soon reassert itself, overwhelm, shame, and crowd out the terrorists, and revitalize our society, which had strayed so far from its Judeo-Christian foundations, with its unique virtues.
Innumerable people, including prominent talk show hosts, opinion makers, policymakers, legislators and philanthropists bought into this, and gave the moderate Muslims massive platforms upon which to proclaim the reassuring message that the vast majority of Muslims abhorred and repudiated terrorism, and soon, very soon, would rise up en masse to put a stop to it.
Twenty-five years after 9/11, we’re still waiting. The moderates are still out there, still enjoying their bully pulpits on major networks and even increasing their activities in the political sphere, but none of what they promised has come true. In fact, at this point, it can be stated definitively: the promise that “moderate Muslims” made of a “moderate Islam” was false and hollow. There never was a moderate Islam, or a vast majority of peaceful Muslims that would rise up and put a stop to Islamic terrorist activity.
This is not to say that there aren’t Muslims who are not terrorists. Obviously there are, and there are many. But these are simply Muslims who, either for lack of will, or because the time isn’t right, or simply because they aren’t really all that devout and have other interests and priorities, are not waging jihad. Some of these, in fact, although non-Muslims complacently assume that they’re moderate, are actually waging jihad of the pen, jihad of the tongue, or jihad of the pocketbook, rather than violent jihad. Others, for a variety of reasons, just aren’t interested and can’t be bothered.
Their indifference to what the Qur’an states is their Islamic obligation (see, for example, 4:95) does not remove that obligation. Secular or Westernized Muslims, and Muslims in general who aren’t waging jihad against the West, do not have their own sect of Islam, or their own interpretation of the Qur’an and Sunnah. They simply aren’t following some of their religion’s commands, like Christians who don’t love their enemies or turn the other cheek. In fact, they’re always vulnerable to recruitment at the hands of jihadis who guilt-trip them with the observation that they aren’t living as good Muslims.
If what the moderates and reformers have been telling us about their enlightened, peaceful Islam were true, we would expect that by now, they themselves would have massive followings among Muslims. None of them do. All of them are much more popular and respected among non-Muslims than they are among Muslims.
We would also expect to see numerous Islamic authorities repudiate jihad terrorism (not just an undifferentiated “terrorism” that turns out to be talking about the U.S. and Israel) and shown how it was a misuse of and misunderstanding of Islam. We should see classes in mosques all over the U.S., and, indeed, all over the world, teaching young Muslims why they should reject the Islam of al-Qaeda and ISIS, and how they can resist the jihadi appeal. We should see “Muslims Against Terrorism” organizations with hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of members.
We see none of that. And we see none of it because Islam is not what the moderates and reformers say it is. And they, as observant Muslims, must know that full well. I once spoke at a counterterror event just before a prominent “moderate Muslim,” who proceed to tell the crowd that she read the Qur’an every morning and could assure everyone that it taught peace and tolerance.
Well, as I’ve illustrated again and again and again, it doesn’t. And if this moderate really read it every morning, she would have known that, as I’m sure she did.
If they know that Islam is not peace, however, then what are the moderates doing? They’re trying to make Americans think that the vast majority of Muslims don’t want Sharia, or jihad, or to make war against and subjugate Jews and Christians. The reassured infidels, having duly received the instruction of the moderates, will then see no need to protect their societies or defend them against the spread of Sharia. Why should they? Islam is peaceful, rational, or tolerant. Only bigots could oppose those things!
The result of the moderate efforts, then, is to soften up the infidels in the face of the advancing jihad. The moderate Muslims, the great reformers, the foes of jihad violence, turn out to be the most insidious, and effective, jihadis of all.
Patton says
As the old adage goes: Not all Moose Slimes may be (active) terrorists but just about all terrorists are Moose Slimes.
Nearly 50,000 demonstrable indisputable examples since 9/11. Starting to see a pattern here folks?
And yet 25 years later useful idiots on the American left continue to vote for this sub-human effluence. Cultural suicide.
commonsense says
Patton:
Gad Sa’ad calls it “suicidal empathy.”
Brent Horton says
As a decades long student of Military and Economic Histories, I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Islam, has one purpose, and one purpose only. Whether it was the Islamic Factions inside the Golden Hoard, or the Ottoman Empire, the result is always the same. Subjugation, via violence.
These Western Liberals need to pull their heads out of the sand. Full stop.
Ricky says
Not all muslims are active terrorists but islam and muslims are that way currently and always is because of collective belief in totalitarian ideology and there is no such thing as moderate Islam as violent jihad still plays a big role as documented in robert spencer’s books and these polls in the thereligionofpeace.com https://thereligionofpeace.com/pages/articles/opinion-polls.aspx documents the extent of supremacism
leftists align with them because of shared beliefs in totalitarianism and dogma and leftists also deny their own mental health problems by blaming on jihadists’ mental health after every jihad attack despite muslims just following what is in their totalitarian doctrine and same left blames other anti-muslim or right-wing extremists as a way to divert the real attention from muslims despite real tiny minority of extremists are infidels and muslims are certainly not tiny minority of extremists or population and anti-muslim extremists are also created by left due to their policy failures and by ignoring problems after something left did fails rather than accepting their failures and anti-muslim extremists for example Anders Behring Breivik are the real ones with mental health problems but he given a diversion for left to hide Islamic threats .
Post world war II global political environment also created a perfect breeding ground for Islam and muslims to do stealth jihad but as it is a totalitarian ideology there are still tens of thousands of attacks even when trying to do stealth jihad .
IQ also a plays a role in this combined with low IQ and totalitarian Koran it is easy to create a suicide bomber than with anything else and leftist deep state also sees muslims as a useful tool due to size of muslim population being almost 2 billion and by 2075 they are already a majority according to their own Muslim favorite United Nations .
And current definition of minority is also a leftist United Nations tool to breed muslims as if we see honestly how can one with over 50 nations, almost 2 billion size and belief in same totalitarian ideology can be a minority and at same time leftists in west and across the world who are not ready to support other native cultures which already exists in their own countries ,which are not imported at the same time aligns and breeds muslims and violates the rights of the real cultured minorities and Leftists have a lack of cultureness so they won’t see their own culture and other native cultures so they replace them with Islamic totalitarianism
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Somewhat related – this was about the discussion on the terms “islamism” from the other day
I started a conversation w/ Leo – the built-in AI bot of the Brave browser, and decided to ask some probing questions about the term “islamism”. What came out was fascinating. Not sure how the copy-paste will turn out, but here it is
brave://leo-ai/92b7d62a-a50f-41d0-a99c-f3a0df68a713
You be the judge of Leo’s conclusions
commonsense says
Infidel: Sorry – the link failed. Please try again if you’ve the time; I’d like to read it.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Commonsense
Sorry it failed: not sure how to transmit AI conversations here. I’ll reproduce the questions I asked. If you use the Brave web browser and its Leo AI, you can replicate these as well. Just ask these questions separately after each response that you get: it should be close:
The reason I asked 2 and the ones that followed was that Leo gave me an answer that a Turkish intellectual Ziya Gökalp coined that word, and it gave me variances b/w the 2 terms for “islam” vs “islamism”. That’s what drove me to ask it question 2 as a follow-up, and question 3 about whether other muslim languages have that same distinctions. Its answer about Arabic was revealing, and Urdu was nebulus. Bahasa (Indonesian/Malay) and Farsi do have the distinctions
Leo’s conclusions was fascinating:
I wish I could have reproduced the whole thing w/o repeatedly hitting the Sucouri firewall, but hopefully, if you use the same AI, you should get similar results
commonsense says
Thanks a million, Infidel. Most edifying and consequential.
Joe1 says
My experience with ChatGPT was similar. I was engaging it about what it knew of Muslim history, such as the beginning of Islam which is obviously Petra (e.g, Quran, diet, mosques, pilgrimages, etc.), but ChatGPT wasn’t having any of that Petra story, and denied that copies of the Quran existed before the story of Muhammad, although I showed it copies and links to Qurans from 300 AD or so. Its response was that I was wrong regardless of the evidence.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Joe1
On this one, opinion is divided, even on our side. While Jay Smith and Robert Spencer believe that islam may have originated pretty late and probably didn’t exist before the 10th century under the Abbasids, others like Raymond Ibrahim, Mary Harb, David Wood, all believe that the original claim by the Arabs that islam originated in 7th century Arabia is correct. It’s therefore unlikely that any AI would have confirmed the Petra Ka’aba theory if presented w/ it
The one I posed was about the term “islamism”, and in my response to commonsense, I summarized what it said. Its response doesn’t endorse what Western apologists of islam have been pretending – that there is a thing called “islamism” that’s separate and distinct from “islam”
jerry glenn says
As Erdogan assures us, Islam is Islam
somehistory says
Some of us have been saying this all along.
The zuedi jassar muzzlim (name spelled incorrectly, I know) has tried for years to lull us into believing the rest of the cult is just like him. And the ones who have not yet raped or murdered, nor entered political office for the purpose of destruction, are just like him….willing to lull us with soft words of “we are just like you, only better.”
If three muzzlums are standing on a street corner, how could an infidel know which one is ready to slice the neck or set of a bomb?
The woman in NYC married to the muzzie mayor….dresses basically the same as other women in NYC
The woman in MI who wears a black and white scarf around her neck, just below her foul mouth. dresses much like other women. The yassar arafat scarf is the difference.
The woman in MN who wears a colorful scarf on her head, squeezing her face, dresses much the same as other women. Just the scarf is different.
Which of those women are “moderate”? None. They have all expressed a hatred for Israel and demands that muzzlims be allowed to destroy the Jews.
I have spoken to both kinds of muzzlims….the soft-spoken couple who assured me that they were just like me and that their book speaks of Noah, Abraham, etc. And they offered me candy.
And I have written before of the one who was ‘helping’ me move and tried to break my tv set.
And the one who rode a school bus and complained that he couldn’t rent an apartment and have forty other muzzlims live in it.
yassar arafat told b clinton and the PM of Israel that he and his muzzlim friends wanted “peace.”
And arafat told his muzzlim friends that he was lulling clinton and Israel into thinking the muzzlims wanted peace, but war was on the way. A writer for RD quoted his very words.
If there really were so many **moderates*….on the range, that’s still hot…they were the majority, then so-called *moderates* would be ruling in pakistan, afghanistan, egypt, etc. because, as we all know, muzzlims vote in a bloc.
If the “moderates” are lulling the ignorant to sleep, it’s so the immoderates can strike the necks.
Walter Sieruk says
One lie about the religion of Islam that the Western news media keep telling the public is that there are to different kinds of Islam which are that there is “Radical Islam” and likewise “Islamic extremism” along with “Moderate Islam.”
Many scholars on Islam ,such as Brigitte Gabriel and Robert Spencer, had explain that the terms “Radical Islam” and “Moderate Islam” Western terms and are unknown to the Islamic world. As one of their leaders said “Islam is Islam”
Furthermore, a Muslim in an Islamic country would view that a Westerner would call a “Radical Muslim” in a Muslim nation he would be seen as a “devote Muslim” who is totally committed to the cause of Islam by the way of the violent jihad,
By contrast what a Westerner would call a “moderate Muslim’ many Muslims in Asia as well as the Middle East call a Muslim who is not really living up to his faith in Islam by not taking up arms in the violence and killing of the jihad for Islam.
Therefore many of Muslim, overseas , would call him a “hypocrite” This is way many devote Muslim who are violent jihadists gather together in a group and chant “Death to infidels and hypocrites ” Meaning “Death to non-Muslims and non-violent, jihadist Muslims.
Walter Sieruk says
The terms “Radical Islam” as well as “Moderate Islam.” are unknown in the Islamic world. Likewise, the terms “Radical Muslim: and “Moderate Muslim” are also unknown in the Islamic world. Those are Western terms. For what a Westerner would call an “Islamist” ” or a “radical Muslim” in the world of Islam that person would be seen as a “devout Muslim” Also, what a Westerner would call a Moderate Muslim “in the Islamic world he would be viewed as a Muslim “who isn’t fully committed to Islam.”
Walter Sieruk says
About that, term “Radical Islam.”
The terms “Radical Islam” as well as “Islamic extremism” Western terms and unknown in the Muslim world. Therefore, those words not fitting term as the following explains.
For the terms Islamic extremism” and “Islamic extremist” as well as “Radical Muslim” is actually a misuse of terms. “Moderate Muslim” are actually Western term and not that well known in the Islamic Middle East.
This is because what In the Islamic mindset in the Muslim Middle East as well as in Indonesia and other Muslim controlled countries what the non-Muslims of the Western nations view as “radical and “extremist” the Muslims of those places in the world see as “Normal” and even Devout and committed to the Cause of Islam.”
In addition, those “Moderate Muslims” are those of the Islamic worldview and non-devout and non –committed Muslims. The violent jihadists even see them as “hypocrites.” Therefore, this explains the jihadist chant of those jihad-minded Muslims in different Islamic terror organizations. When they chant aloud “Death to infidels and hypocrites.” Meaning Death to people who and not Muslims and people who are non- jihadist Muslims.
Concerning the last part of this above essay, the violent spirit of that vicious jihadist chant “Death to infidels and hypocrites.” The later word of the chant “hypocrites” in the jihad –minded Muslim worldview is further explain in the book titled JIHADIST PSYCHOPATH by Jamie Glazov , for on page 42 the reader is informed that “Islam mandates that devout and real Muslims must punish , and in some circumstances kill, those Muslims whom they regard as neither legitimate nor properly devout.”
Walter Sieruk says
Regarding the subject of those who are viewed “Radical Muslims, ” who are in contrasted to those who are seen by many Westerners a “Moderate Muslims.” Likewise to that is that many people of the West assume that “Radical Islamic Terrorism” to be a “warped” or “hijacked” form of Islam. Yet the terrible harsh reality is that the actual religion of Islam is the entire foundation of Islamic terrorism or otherwise accurately, but seldom called what is really is, which is “Muslim terrorism.”
For Islam’s “holy book” the Qur ‘an [the Koran] instructs on the use of violence and killing for the advancement of Islam.
As found in ,for example 2:191. 4:89. 5:33. 9:5,111,123. 47:4. Furthermore, it may be illustrated that if Islam is represented as a tree then the fruits then the fruits of that tree are the many brutal, violent and deadly jihad terror entities. Al Qaeda ISIS , Hamas Hezbollah, and Islamic jihad and so forth
With this statement, the Wisdom of the teachings of Jesus may, very much, apply to this subject. For Jesus taught, “You do know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bears forth good fruit; but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.” After saying, this Jesus told them what He told them when He said “By their fruit you will know them.” Matthew 7:16, 17, 18,.20. [N.K.J.V.]
In conclusion, Islam is a corrupt tree and also a false religion, Proverbs 14:12. John 14:6. First John 2:22,23. 4:14,15. 5:12,13,20.
CryHavoc says
I read the Qur’an to get an idea of a Muslim mindset. I view most any religious tome with skepticism and the Holy Qur’an only justifies my stance. Things have gotten worse since 9/11 versus better. If you add up the number of illiterate people in Pakistan, Egypt and Morocco, that is ca. 200 million illiterates and if they come into contact with a nihilistic Islamic scholar, that is mujaheeden in the making. Whether Muda’rat or Al-Taqqiyah is beingbused, those of Islam are lying to the world. Until Muslims denounce the violent and intolerant majority of Islam’s adherents, don’t expect the rest of the world to differentiate.
Tim gallagher says
Islam, all of it, is evil poison
It has a bad, hate filled attitude towards non Muslims. There is no live and let live attitude which non Muslims tend to have. It needs to be banned in the way the Hungarians and poles do to it. Islam is sheer evil. It has no good features at all. It deserves to receive nothing but contempt and hatred.
Chatillon says
Moderate Muslims exist. Just like moderate Nazis. They’re all over the place. Can’t you see them?
Andrew Blackadder says
The moderate muslime will hold the feet of the infidel while the radical muslimes cuts off his head.
islamism is nazism in a Turban.