The moderate voices of Islam

The Boston Globe ^ | May 16, 2002 | Jeff Jacoby

[Stand Watch Listen]

THE TALIBAN may be no more, and Osama bin Laden may be dead or in hiding, but Islamism - the militant, extremist wing of Islam that carried out the crimes of Sept. 11 - is alive and well and still spewing its hateful rhetoric.

The Saudi Arabian ambassador to Great Britain, for example, recently published a poem extolling suicide bombers on the front page of a leading Arabic newspaper. ''Tell Ayat, the bride of heaven,'' he wrote, referring to Ayat Al-Ahras, who murdered two Israelis and wounded 25 others when she bombed a Jerusalem supermarket, ''she kissed her death while smiling with good tidings.... Paradise opened its doors for her.''

Less lyrical but no less repellent was the column Fatma Abdallah Mahmoud wrote for Egypt's leading newspaper. His subject: the Jews.

''They are accursed in heaven and on earth. They are accursed from the day the human race was created.... They are the virus of the generation, doomed to a life of humiliation and wretchedness.'' And so on through many paragraphs, climaxing with a lament to Adolf Hitler: ''If only you had done it, brother.''

Sadly, there is no shortage of this poisonous stuff; you can find these and other examples at www.memri.org, the Web site of the Middle East Media and Research Institute.

It is important to be aware of what the Islamists and their allies are saying - after all, they are the enemy in our war against terrorism. But it is also important to hear the voices of Muslim moderates, who reject the fanatics' views but do not get nearly the attention they deserve. Unlike the Islamists, who smear any criticism of Muslim extremism as ''Islamophobia,'' the moderates insist that honest criticism is exactly what is missing in modern Muslim life. And where the extremists seethe with hate for America and Israel, the moderates call for peace and tolerance.

Mona Eltahawy, an Egyptian Muslim, was a journalist in Cairo before moving to America. ''Moderate and progressive Muslims must speak out,'' she wrote in The Washington Post. ''It is no longer enough for the clerics to issue tired platitudes on how Islam means peace.... Where were they when Osama bin Laden and his coalition of terrorists vowed to target every American man, woman and child? We have to look inward and ask ourselves: What in Islam, what in the way it is practiced today, allowed bin Laden to promote his murderous message?''

Another Muslim writer - decidedly nontraditional - is Irshad Manji, a Canadian television personality. She published ''A Muslim plea for introspection'' after a terrorist bomber murdered 26 Israeli Jews as they sat down to their Passover Seder.

''Instead of acknowledging that there's a serious problem with the way our religion is practiced,'' Manji wrote, ''even in cosmopolitan Canada we romanticize Islam.... It's time to question publicly whether Islam lends itself to fundamentalism more easily than other world religions.'' Weeks before Sept. 11, when Islamist dictators still ruled Afghanistan, she publicly denounced ''the silence of Muslims in the West toward the woman-stoning, kite-banning, execution-enamored Taliban.'' It was precisely that silence that made her outspokenness so exemplary.

But when it comes to outspokenness, not to mention courage, no Muslim moderate comes close to Sheik Abdul Hadi Palazzi.

Unlike Manji and Eltahawy, Palazzi is a notable Muslim leader and a Koranic scholar. Since 1987 he has been an imam for Italy's Muslim community and serves as secretary general of the Italian Muslim Association. He is a rarity among the Muslim clergy: a defender of Israel and a vocal enemy of Islamist terror.

More than 12 months ago, under Palazzi's leadership, the Italian Ulema - council of Muslim scholars - excoriated the Palestinian exploitation of children for suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks. ''In defense of a wicked regime, innocent ignorant children are sent to be killed in criminal actions,'' the Ulema proclaimed. ''This regime'' - Yasser Arafat's autocracy - ''even dares to declare that Islam approves of these criminal acts.'' The council condemned ''the criminals who spread Jew-hatred among Muslims'' and ruled that so long as Israel does not impede Muslims in the practice of their religion, violent attacks against it were forbidden by Islamic law.

Far from regarding Israel as an alien presence on Muslim soil, Palazzi points out that the Koran itself openly anticipates the Jewish return to the Holy Land. ''Many of us are now ready to admit that hostility for Israel has been a great mistake,'' he says, ''perhaps the worst mistake Muslims have made in the last 50 years.'' His plea is ''for Jews and Muslims to recognize each other once again as ... brothers descended from the same father, Abraham.... The more we discover our common roots, the more we can hope for a common future of peace and prosperity.''

Palazzi's is the voice of genuine Muslim moderation. It deserves to be heard far and wide.

Jeff Jacoby's e-mail address is jacoby@globe.com.

[Stand Watch Listen]

.

Related Articles:

Reports of Moderate Islam's Existence Have Been Greatly Exaggerated
Source: CNSNews.com; Published: April 22, 2002;
Author: C.T. Rossi

It's time to snap out of Arab fantasy land {Steyn}
Source: National Post; April 19 2002;
Author: Mark Steyn

Islam Vs. The World
Source: Toogood Reports; Published: December 2, 2001;
Author: Alan Caruba

Will the Real Islam Please Stand Up! Source:Van Jenerette Editorial Comment, Various Publications;
Published: October 14, 2001; Author: Van Jenerette

Civilization Envy
Source: National Review Online; Published: September 28, 2001;
Author: Jonah Goldberg

Terror's Homebase, All Over The Map -- Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam
Source: Wall Street Journal-- Book Review; Published: | March 29, 2002;
Author: Adrian Karatnycky

They Live to Die (Islam Martyrdom)
Source: Wall Street Journal; Published: April 7, 2002;
Author: Reuel Marc Gerecht

20 Suppressed Facts About Israel, Islam
Source: Koenig's International News; Published: April 9, 2002;
Author: Jim Bramlett

HOROWITZ: A MIDDLE EAST HISTORY PRIMER
Source: News and Opinion.com; Published; April 10, 2002;
Author:David Horowitz

Arafat Must Go!
Source: CNSNews.com; Published: April 10, 2002;
Author: Alan Caruba

Netanyahu speaks before the US SENATE
Source: http://netanyahu.org/netspeacinse.html; Published: April 10, 2002;
Author: Netanyahu address US Senate

[eno_]

The moderate voices of Islam

They found both of them?

[PsyOp]

They found both of them?

Both of whome found the courage to speak only from the safe havens of the United States and Canada. What a joke.

[TADSLOS]

Looks like they have the same number of members as Ross Perot's Party.

[swarthyguy]

But there's no one listening to these voices of Palazzi and Kabbani. Their biggest audience is us. Doesn't seem like they have any credibility elsewhere; otherwise they would have been invited to speak at the recent muslim conferences in KualaLumpur and elsewhere.

[Black Agnes]

You got that right. Why do I get the feeling that these two are 'taking one for the team' to appease our ideas of what 'islam' is really about.

[Lurker]

You have to remember that a moderate Arab is one who holds a grudge for only 8 generations.

L

[steve-b]

Moderate Muslims don't go to those gatherings for the same reason PETAphiles don't throw red paint on Hell's Angels.

[swarthyguy]

If they don't have the guts to stand up and be counted in the USA, then where? when? It's incumbent upon the Muslims of the USA to speak for a 'moderate, tolerant' islam, if one exists. They really haven't so far, in any appreciable numbers.