Will moderate Muslims please stand up?

[Zibago]

And therefore it's misguided to think that "moderate Muslims" can do anything to fight Islamist terror?

Not really we dont want to fight people with rpg,s and suicide bombers we can only condemn them but we exoect our governments to take care of them

 

[Solomon2]

Not really we dont want to fight people with rpg,s and suicide bombers we can only condemn them but we exoect our governments to take care of them

"Defeating extremism requires a holistic and all-encompassing strategy that simultaneously addresses its social, economic and political causes. Reclaiming control of theological interpretation is just one part of the wider strategy. Moderate Muslims need to come out of their comfort zones and actively contest and challenge the radical interpretations of scriptures advanced by extremists."

And this is something you expect your government to do?

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Not really we dont want to fight people with rpg,s and suicide bombers we can only condemn them but we exoect our governments to take care of them

It's not even about going to that extent - intolerance, hatred and justification for violence has spread far deeper into Muslims societies. Take for example the reaction to Hamza Abbasi's comments against the violence in Jhelum over alleged 'Blasphemy' and his comments condemning mob violence against Ahmadi's.

When even moderate Muslims justify terrorism and violence on the basis of 'Blasphemy and Ahmadi's', then is it really that surprising that it doesn't take a lot of distortion to to the kind of terrorism we saw at the Peshawar School attacks and in Paris?

Why I support Hamza Ali Abbasi standing up for Pakistan’s Ahmadis – The Express Tribune Blog

 

[pak-marine]

We got better things to do like watch tv and stuff

and drink pepsi cola

 

[Azad-Kashmiri]

Unfortunately, todays moderates are tinkering on the border of disbelief. The real moderates like the Ulima Ikram are taunted as extremists. This is the upside down world we live in, 'what is right is wrong and what is wrong is right'. Shame!

 

[The Silent One]

"Defeating extremism requires a holistic and all-encompassing strategy that simultaneously addresses its social, economic and political causes. Reclaiming control of theological interpretation is just one part of the wider strategy. Moderate Muslims need to come out of their comfort zones and actively contest and challenge the radical interpretations of scriptures advanced by extremists."

And this is something you expect your government to do?

Stop for a moment and ask yourself a simple honest question: Why now?

If you study Islamic history, you'll notice that Islamic terrorism is a relatively recent phenomenon.
- The Taliban was formed in the 1990s.
- Al-Qaeda around the same time.
- Hamas was formed the mid 1980s
- Boko haram in the 2000s
- Al-Shabaab in the 2000s

You give me a terrorist group and i'll bet you all the money in the world, the group was formed after 1985. (No the Muslim Brotherhood does not count).

This is because Radical Islam is not Islam; The proper term is Islamism. or Political Islam, if you insist on mentioning Islam.

 

[MastanKhan]

And therefore it's misguided to think that "moderate Muslims" can do anything to fight Islamist terror?

Solomon,

It is not Islamist terror---it is all about Israeli terror----. For 14 years now----Israel has been deflecting the truth behind the 9/11----.

Everything that has been happening is about Israel----.

Yes the moderate muslims should get together and join and start talking about the occupation of Palestine----. It is due to the atrocities committed by the istraeli jews that the world is suffering---.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Solomon,

It is not Islamist terror---

It is absolutely about 'Islamist terror', and that too without getting to entities like the TTP and Daesh - the problem begins in our homes, the homes of 'moderate Muslims', when we justify intolerance, hatred and violence and support ridiculous laws restricting free speech under the excuse of 'Blasphemy'.

Man jailed for 13 years for Facebook 'hate speech' - The Express Tribune

“We will beat them, we will lynch them”, they chanted, before setting fire to the Ahmadi factory – The Express Tribune Blog

Why I support Hamza Ali Abbasi standing up for Pakistan’s Ahmadis – The Express Tribune Blog

 

[Solomon2]

Solomon, It is not Islamist terror---it is all about Israeli terror----Everything that has been happening is about Israel----

I'll repeat what I wrote last year:

I think it's important for Pakistanis to consider where unqualified support for anti-Zionism has led them in the past 70 years: the inversion of truth, the denial of national self-determination, the endorsement of of the murder of innocents...all these things and more, thus leading to general moral corruption pervading their society. By becoming unconditional supporters of Israel, I believe they'll have a chance to reverse all that and heal their terror- and crime-ridden country.

I might be wrong, of course. I'm a Zionist, and to a hammer everything looks like a nail. Yet I've expressed this opinion several times here and I don't think anyone has contested that it will work.

 

[Azad-Kashmiri]

Peddling conspiracy theories does not help Muslims. Seriously, why not just bring out a fatwa to declare ISIS as kafir? 72 Sects of Islam once gathered together to declare harmless Ahmadis as kafir but can't seem to gather enough support to delcare ISIS as kafir?

It would be better to research and then comment. The Scholars have rejected ISIS and gave a FATWA against them.

Letter to Baghdadi - Open Letter to BaghdadiOpen Letter to Baghdadi

 

[Jaanbaz]

It would be better to research and then comment. The Scholars have rejected ISIS and gave a FATWA against them.

Letter to Baghdadi - Open Letter to BaghdadiOpen Letter to Baghdadi

Call the whole organisation ISIS and other terrorist groups Kafir, they can't can they? This double standards won't work. Al Nusra are Saudi proxies yet they are just as worst as ISIS only smaller in capacities.

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

One more hilarious thing if you noticed on media


Any extremist Christian act , like beating up Muslim they call it "Intolerance" while anything that muslim commits its called

"Extremist or Islamist"

really just watch the media.

I think the real people who should apologies are the government heads, the politicians and member of parliment and congress who supported ISIS becasue they did not like Mr Assad and other leaders in region.

 

[Indika]

Yo

Will moderate Muslims please stand up?
By Rafiullah Kakar
Published: November 21, 2015

The writer is a Rhodes Scholar and an alumnus of the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford​

Each time a terror attack carried out by Muslim militants wrecks a Western country, Muslims from across the world take to electronic and social media to condemn the horrific act, dissociate themselves from the perpetrators and defend Islam as a religion of peace. Despite these condemnations, moderate Muslims have neither been able to undermine the militants’ resolve to continue their ‘holy’ war against the ‘infidel’ West nor have they been effective in dissuading Islamophobes in the West from demonising Islam and painting moderate and extremist Muslims with the same brush. Consequently, it is no surprise that while both Muslim extremists and Islamophobes are increasingly dictating terms of debate on extremism, the so-called moderate Muslims are not only bearing the brunt of this aggravating polarisation, they are also losing influence and yielding the debate to extremists. Who is to blame for this?

Although moderate Muslims would like to apportion blame solely to the interventionist and imperialistic foreign policies of the West, they cannot completely exonerate themselves from responsibility for the current mess. The standard Muslim line that militant groups like the Islamic State (IS), the Taliban, Boko Haram and so on, are not ‘true’ representatives of Islam and that their brutal acts have nothing to do with religion is actually part of the problem. This approach indicates the denial on the part of Muslims to acknowledge that one of the root causes of terrorism is radicalisation through a very literalistic and distorted interpretation of Islamic scripture.

Before I elucidate my argument, it is worth emphasising that a radical interpretation of religion does not necessarily have to translate into violence. Instead, it is often a combination of politics and conservative religion that produces the vitriolic narrative and rampage that most Muslim countries are grappling with today. There might have been no IS had the US and the UK not invaded Iraq. Similarly, the rise of extremism in South Asia and the Middle East cannot be explained without mentioning the role of some key regional and extra-regional countries that used religion as a tool to further their strategic interests. Additionally, there is also no denying that colonialism, endless Western military interventions and decades of secular authoritarian rule, often backed by Western powers, have helped push the Middle East into violence.

While Muslims almost always talk about the politics that creates terrorism and rightly so, they rarely discuss its other important source, namely a radicalised interpretation of religion. This piece contends that politics alone does not explain the origin and sustenance of the likes of the Taliban, al Qaeda and the IS. Regardless of the conditions in which they originated, these groups derive their sustenance mainly from the obscurantist and retrogressive ideology that views the modern nation-state as a system of kufr and affirms the inherent, and perhaps exclusive, right of Muslims to rule.

Followers of militant groups such as the IS and al Qaeda are often devout Muslims with a reactionary and warped worldview. These groups come closest to what would be dubbed the religious equivalent of fascism in modern times. Be it stoning women to death or beheading and killing innocent people, they invoke scripture to justify these acts, which is clearly wrong.

Being a moderate Muslim, I know that the majority of Muslims do not share the ideology espoused by these radical elements. Nevertheless, the problem is that most Muslims do not even acknowledge that radicalisation is a problem and that something needs to be done about it. By asserting that the likes of the IS, al Qaeda and the Taliban have nothing to do with religion, the moderate Muslims let these radicals get away with their virulent perversion of religion and thus squander a potential opportunity for discrediting them publicly.

A segment of moderate Muslims does recognise the challenge posed by radical interpretations of religion and dispute the conservative and literalist reading of scriptures advocated by religious fundamentalists. Quranic verses, the moderate Muslims argue, are often misinterpreted and quoted out of context, including some verses pertaining to non-Muslims, jihad and various forms of punishments. The problem with this debate is that it only happens in drawing rooms and private gatherings of a tiny liberal, secular and left-leaning class. Publicly, most Muslims are reluctant to openly engage in critical debate regarding religion. Those who do so often pay a huge price for it. Indeed, most Muslim countries lack the conducive environment required for fostering such debates. The places where there is space for critical debates are the relatively advanced democracies of the developed world. However, in almost all such countries, Muslims are in a minority and often the victims of hatred and prejudice inspired by Islamophobia. Consequently, conscious of their minority status, moderate Muslims in these countries hold back their views on religion for fear of being seen as abettors of Islamophobia.

Defeating extremism requires a holistic and all-encompassing strategy that simultaneously addresses its social, economic and political causes. Reclaiming control of theological interpretation is just one part of the wider strategy.

Moderate Muslims need to come out of their comfort zones and actively contest and challenge the radical interpretations of scriptures advanced by extremists. In order to establish their position as the true representatives of Islam, the moderates need to provide a strong counter-narrative and win the war of ideas within the Islamic world. In pursuit of this goal, they should initiate an informed and open public dialogue about religion and rescue it from the grip of radicals. This may sound like a daunting task, but it is the only way moderate Muslims can ensure that their vision of a more tolerant and inclusive Islam prevails.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 22nd, 2015.

You want this small minority to be identified and killed by rest of the extremists ? Let them live dude . Either they become insane or end up becoming extremists themselves its just matter of time.

 

[Zibago]

and drink pepsi cola

Or something made by murree

 

[Solomon2]

You want this small minority to be identified and killed by rest of the extremists ? Let them live dude . Either they become insane or end up becoming extremists themselves its just matter of time.

They will have to show strength, somehow. It's up to them to decide how brave they want to be - or suffer the consequences of inaction. What is worth dying for?