Moderate Muslims Under Siege

NYTimes ^ | 7.1.02 | KAHLED ABOU EL FADL

[katman]

Actually, El-Fadl has consistently been a leader in working to create serious debate and internal accountability around Islam and Human Rights. His books are banned in Saudi Arabia, I believe.

He used to be a jihadi, but he had a Dad who wasn't amused and won the arguments over time (thank you, Mr. El-Fadl Senior!). He has since changed his tune and become one of Wahhabism's most prominent enemies in the United States.

While I'm deeply hostile to the visible Muslim political leadership in the USA, El-Fadl is one of the good guys.

[mikeIII]

Show me ONE picture of Muslims out in the street in ANY country, carrying posters or marching in protest, at 9/11 or the Pearl murder... out of 1 billion ... a poster that says, perhaps, "DOWN WITH TERRORISM! WE SUPPORT AMERICA!".

[desertcry]

waiting for clear thinking muslims Your waiting is too late. The clear thinking muslims went with the dinosaurs. They were all eaten by the wahhabis a long time ago. You will have to wait for the next cycle of evolution, say about 1000 google(1 followed by 103 zeros) years, maybe longer.

[swarthyguy]

Searching.....

[mikeIII]

Waiting ...

[Deb]

Thanks for the url on Paktoday. I wrote Mr. Sayyed a kissy-face email and will go there as much as I can to boost his numbers.

His picture at the site looks like Jon Lovitz at 60.

[swarthyguy]

"He used to be a jihadi"

The author was on hardball tonight discussing the UN report that just came out. He looks like a jihadi but sounds rational. At least he's on TV and making a case. Decrying arab governments of all stripes, their brutal police state tactics, lack of freedoms.

[MissAmericanPie]

The Quaran says what the Quaran says, there is no denying what is written in it. What? Do they get to pick and choose what they accept and reject the parts they don't? What kind of truth is that? No objective scholar can combine that mess into something cohesive. Unless maybe you narrowly define the "innocent" as only being Quaran thumping believers in Islam.

[swarthyguy]

"narrowly define the "innocent"

That's what imam Siddiqui of CAIR meant when in the week after September 11, 2001, at the service in the National Cathedral, he 'condemned' the "unjustified killing of innocents".

Very few will unequivocally condemn the killing of nonmuslims by muslims. The brave ones who do often are killed themselves.

[tessalu]

If today's Muslims had been here during WW2, they would all have been shipped off to internment camps. The Japanese were never the terror that these people are.

[katman]

katman is Joe Katzman's FR user name.

The Wall St. Journal article was the foundation for a blog post that sketched out the kind of thing Mrs. Thatcher was talking about, and the risks. Hence the category of "extended news"

It's one thing to have it as a one-sentence throw-away in a WSJ article, quite another to have the potential consequences fleshed out vividly. The latter is more likely to lead to deeper comprehension, and hence commitment.