I'd like to weigh in on this, and start off with my appreciation for this initiative, but also add one note to this; for moderate muslims to call extremist muslims 'not muslim' is the same tactic as extremist muslims use against muslims of other flavors of Islam than their own, and I don't think this attitude (on either side) will help solve the problems of muslims; in fact i think it's likely it'll do the opposite, even though it might be a popular message (coming from moderate muslims) to 'dumber' western audiences. A more effective label for extremist muslims (floated by moderate muslims) might be 'extremist muslims are severely misguided by clergy that corrupts the essence of Islam'.
The central principle of the religion called "islam" is TOLERANCE.
Well, that's the viewpoint of 'man in the middle' muslims, whose most objectionable attribute is that they publicly support extremist muslims 'efforts' by claiming the violence by extremist muslims is justified somehow, or just does not exist.
https://www.google.nl/search?q=islam+central+principles - I could find no page on the 1st page of these search results that lists 'tolerance' as a central principle of Islam. I did find 'obedience to Allah' as central principle, which I'd like to make a remark about that will prove
crucial to the future fate of muslims :
'Submission to Allah' translates in today's reality (in muslim extremist ruled territories *especially*) as 'Submission to what the imams say is the will of Allah'
This is the *core* of the spiritual corruption that is at the heart of nearly all the problems muslims have to endure today. The fact that you are forced (by any means up to public torture into death eh) to *blindly obey* your
priests, even if they send you to severely-counter-productive wars to impose some set of (very restrictive!) social rules on other cultures and 'other flavors of Islam'.
I should note that not just Islam suffers from this spiritual corruption; Christians were severely politically influenced by Christian priests (and some still are) until most Christians stopped going to church regularly and getting their political direction from their priests (around 100-50 years ago).
The central problem is this: As soon as the Prophet of our common God has died, and all those who heard his voice with their own ears as well, any Holy Book or scriptures that Prophet made become the property of (and subject to change by) people attracted to
political power; "the corrupt", whom I very seriously suspect to be the true source of all 'other religions suck and may/must be conquered by the sword by us' directives in Holy Books, so they can use the wars that are the result of that as a means to keep an army employed and paid (through looting of other religions' followers).
A more recent example of how (very) good intentions by a (near?-)prophet-class spiritual leader get corrupted in no time at all once he's left this Earthly plane in 1990, is mr Osho (note: i don't think this guy was a Prophet of God, but I have read some of the books on spirituality that he wrote, and thought them to be fairly good) ;
WHAT enlightenment??!: Andrew Cohen and the Corruption of Power
....
What is evil is the misogyny and inhumanity that underlies Andrew’s world view.
Wendyl’s memory of that Rishikesh retreat is so much fuller than my own. But memories of the endless, obsessive, manic attempts by the group of women to reclaim some approval from Andrew came flooding back to me. And a memory of the special treatment I remember receiving despite the fact that I had committed the same “crime” of apologizing. You see, any woman that said “I’m sorry” to anyone for any reason was kicked out of the retreat to join the other women in the private hell Wendyl described. The women were desperate, doing anything that they could to get out from under the boulder of accusations of being subhuman, and “I’m sorry” is the refrain of individuals who either are wholeheartedly sorry for their behavior, trying to end a personal conflict or, as in our case at the time, in that context, and under those circumstances, profoundly sorry for our own existence.
But I was treated differently, I believe because I had given Andrew well over 2 million dollars by then-nearly all of my money.
I regret the time I spent with him, ashamed at some of the outrageous competitive behavior I engaged in, vying for proximity to Andrew. But what I regret more than anything is allowing Michelle Hemingway and Steve Brett, among others, to coerce me into giving Andrew my money. It is that act that helped give him a power base and some semblance of legitimacy. It was at the time about two-thirds of the purchase price of Foxhollow.
It is all about understanding the context as someone put it. In the context of the world outside Andrew's community or cult, what he did was illegal, something called "undue influence." It is akin to a therapist seeking sexual company from a client or a priest who manipulates a parishioner into donating to the church. I imagine if it wasn’t me, there would be others like me who would have and I am sure continue to give away their money and soul to him as I did. If someone still within the community reads this and considers giving away their wealth, please reconsider. It was the greatest mistake of my life. The genuine human tragedies that have happened in our world since then, 9/11, the human rights abuses throughout the middle east by us and others, the AIDS crisis in Africa and the world, the illiteracy in the world, the Tsunami, the flood in the South, the earthquakes…each would have been an opportunity to give my money to and actually served a greater good.
....
Getting back to Islam; if you want to outgrow the violence that (some of) your priests preach, try not to simply recite prayers to Allah when you pray. Try to have a personal conversation with Allah, or your Prophet Mohammed. So that Allah may make His *current* will -in
today's reality- known to you.
That is the reason why Egypt has 8 million Christians, while Spain, Italy, and much of Eastern Europe were wiped out of Muslims.
https://www.google.nl/webhp?q=christians+attacked+by+muslims#q=christians+attacked+by+muslims
Islam in Spain - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia : As of 2007, it is estimated that over 1 million Muslims live in Spain
Islam in Italy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia : Today there are approximately 1,500,000 Muslims and an estimated 500 mosques in Italy.
Muslim Population
That is the reason why, the Mughals did not get rid of every Hindu in India, but let them live and prosper. That is also the reason why tens of thousands of Sufi Saints can be found all over the Indian country-side, and on whose hands millions of Hindus converted to Islam. Khawaja Ajmeri being one saint who settled in Rajasthan and is well known to have converted a million Hindus all over India, by just his spiritual state and love. This was in the late 1200s.
While I applaud (seriously, no pun) any muslim ruler who truly respects other religions' followers' right to self-determination and civil rights in his jurisdiction, I don't think the (too often) one-sided praise for rulers from long ago serves at all to address the problems of today and the (near) future.
Part of the problem with anti muslims bias is the ignorance of some people to portray all muslims as one homogenous body. I am not responsible for the criminal acts of muslims, just like you are not responsible for criminal acts of your co-religionists.
That's all very true, but I do expect you to support the right to self-defence and self-determination of cultures against extremist muslims' attempt to evangalize us by the sword or bomb.
Where are the poor/illiterate westerners,do they know what hunger is?
https://www.google.nl/search?q=western+public+on+foodstamps
Did not Christianity commit brutal atrocities as well? Such as in the Crusades?
https://www.google.nl/search?q=medieval+crusades+was+response+to+muslim+aggression
plus, focussing on long-past suffering or good behaviour, will do nothing to make the present and future better but derail any discussion on that into a swamp from which there is no escape.
I have no idea of how Muslims live in the Muslim countries but every day I see how they act in the Western world, specifically in Europe where I am from, and I have to say that Muslims are absolutely intolerant and they have no understanding that there is something apart from Sharia law so I agree that Muslims stuck somewhere deeply in the past centuries ago. Today Christians, atheists or any non-Muslim person is more tolerant than Muslims thanks to policy of our governments that forgot themselves in playing with Islam fundamentalists. As result every day I see on TV or in newspapers about immigrants from some Muslim countries that committed crimes against native citizens but no one say about their religion. That is European tolerance while Muslims here are unfettered by any responsibility or obligations. They won't make any steps to build bridges with other religions or non-Muslims. Inside the mind of Muslim fundamentalist everything is simple. You accept Islam or you will die because infidels are the worst enemies for every Muslim. Their only purpose is absolute obedience to Sharia and for the sane Western world this is lethal disease that already hit us and slowly killing at the moment. That's what Islam is about.
Fortunately, the majority of muslim residents in western countries, just want a life free from religious oppression and a decent income. However, the minority that wants to impose sharia law even on the original inhabitants of our territories, can indeed be quite loud at times.
The best thing moderate muslims can do to improve the image of muslims among non-muslims is to convince (somehow) the muslims who seek to impose their social rules on other (sub)cultures to completely let go of evangelism by violence and threat of violence.
You cannot judge religion by persons but by the book (Quran, Bible etc.)
Quite the contrary; I judge followers of a religion by their actions, and also by what their priests preach 'is actually in our Holy Book'.
No thats not what Islam is about its almost like you're illiterate and you copy paste something from somewhere and claim you know it thats how absurd it sounds. You don't know how Muslims live in their countries and you certainly don't know how people from your part of the world influence their lives negatively which most i would say don't even have the guts to accept and then they talk about Sharia what do you even know about it other than your wikipedia sources which are not in the least credible when it comes to these issues or maybe you stay prepared to hear the stupid illogical fatwas that are issued by your stooges. None of your sources at least on Islam, how Muslims live and conduct their lives and how most of them are not peace loving, is backed by anything other than sheer lack of knowledge and like most, you would also consider yourself to have the authority to give a verdict on the subject you have no idea about.
Yea, until all those tolerant muslims do something to stop the religious oppression (by torture) by those 'minority extremist muslims', I can't really call them truly tolerant OR respectable, sorry.