I love OSC, but I think that in this case, he's somewhat hindered by his Judeo-Christian view on religion and faith:
What I find most amusing is the widespread belief among Muslims that this Sharia law is essential in order to preserve Islam. . . religion is absolutely not about mere outward compliance with the law. It is about belief -- it is about what a person believes in his heart. But in a nation where conversion away from Islam means death, then no believer can be sure that his own obedience is purely a matter of conscience.
I would agree with him in about 95% of all religions in the world. Certainly, Christianity and Judaism both emphasize willingly choosing to put one's trust (faith) in God, and having so trusted Him, to trust that He knows what He's talking about in matters of morality, so that one's actions and obedience to God's commands flow naturally out of that love and trust/faith.
Islam, on the other hand, does not preach love and faith. Nowhere in the Quran will you find the equivalent of the two prime commands of the Torah which Yeshua (Jesus) pointed to: Love God above all else, and love your neighbor as yourself. Rather, it preaches unquestioned obedience, even in defiance of one's own concience--and the penalty for any breach of that obedience is horrible mutilation and/or death.
In other words, Christianity and Judaism care about what's in the heart. Islam does not, so long as there is the outward show of obedience. Judaism and Christianity preach love; Islam preaches fear.
There is no faith under compulsion.
Agreed, but Islam demands compulsion in the Quran, the Hadith, and the example of it's cheif prophet. Islam is not a religion of faith.
And until Islam finds a way to make that the universal policy of all true Muslims, so that anyone who claims the right to kill for Allah is immediately denied the right to be recognized as a Muslim by any established Muslim community, then Islam poses a continuous threat to the freedom of all people in the world, Muslim and non-Muslim alike.
The problem is that it cannot do that and still be Islam. Its founding documents (the Quran), traditions (Hadith), and example of its prophet (in the Sira) all demand the blood of those who would convert from Islam or resist it in any way. There is a reason why Mohammed is called by his followers the Prophet of the Sword.
The equivalent would we saying that Chrisitanity needs to renounce the idea that Yeshua died for our sins and rose again three days later. It can't do that and remain Christianity.
The reason why you will not get the moderate Muslims to go against the "fanatics" is that the moderate Muslims are caught in an inconsistant faith--all of the documents and traditions of their faith tell them that those who would impose Sharia by the sword are correct, though their own consciences find that abhorrent. A person with an inconsistant faith cannot be expected to champion it with any courage--just look at the wishy-washyness of those "Christians" who start trying to pick-and-choose what to believe from the Bible.
I hate to be the nutjob here, but the only way to save Islam is to destroy it--that is, the only way to save moderate Muslims from their religion is to destroy Islam in a way that it must be either abandoned or seriously reinterpreted. Demonstrating that Allah has no power to save the Islam from "the Great Satan" by destroying or at least permanently desecrating its holy sites is, IMHO, the only way to win this cultural war.
Of course, that means giving up any kind of incremental solution and going full-bore into WWIV, losing Middle-eastern oil (at least that which we can't secure by our troops), and being the bad guy for a while. It also means paying a terrible price in American blood, a price that our "allies" are unlikely to help us shoulder.
Which is why we won't do it.
The other solution would involve thousands or tens of thousands of Christians from all over the world slipping into the Islam world and preaching the Gospel in the power of the Spirit despite the almost certain cost of their lives. If the moderate Muslims heard a Word of God which coincided with their conciences, saw the power of the Spirit, and saw the willingness of Christians to die for their faith without complaint, how many of them might receive the true Prophet?
I don't see that happening either. The Church (the whole worldwide body of the Messiah) is too lukewarm and too comfortable or just plain too dead in some areas to mount such a campaign.
The third way is the most comfortable in the near term, but will haunt us in future years as Islam continues its spread through the West: Keep doing as we're doing.
Card recognizes the danger. What I don't think he recognizes is that his appeal to the "faith" of the Muslims to moderate is wasted, because they don't know Christian faith--only fear and obedience from fear.
Just my two cents.
Nailed It!