Monday 12 April 2010

Five points to moderate Islam

Every now and then, in response to claims by Muslims that their religion is misunderstood, that it's actually a "Religion of Peace", etc, etc, Robert Spencer repeats five points for Muslims to make it very clear to we "Islamophobes" that they are indeed serious about being anti-terrorist.

He ran the list again today, and I wanted to keep it for the record.  It seems to me to be eminently reasonable.  It's in response to an article by Mary Sanchez headed "Wanted: a calm, credible voice to soothe Americans' fear of Islam". As Spencer notes:
I've got a better idea for Mary Sanchez and MPAC: if they really want to "unravel" Americans' "misperceptions" of Islam, here is an easy way they can do it without going to all the time, trouble and expense of finding and hiring a slick PR man:
1. Focus their indignation on Muslims committing violent acts in the name of Islam, not on non-Muslims reporting on those acts.
2. Renounce definitively not just "terrorism," but any intention to replace the U.S. Constitution (or the constitutions of any non-Muslim state) with Sharia even by peaceful means. In line with this, clarify what is meant by their condemnations of the killing of innocent people by stating unequivocally that American and Israeli civilians are innocent people.
3. Teach Muslims the imperative of coexisting peacefully as equals with non-Muslims on an indefinite basis.
4. Begin comprehensive international programs in mosques all over the world to teach against the ideas of violent jihad and Islamic supremacism.
5. Actively work with Western law enforcement officials to identify and apprehend jihadists within Western Muslim communities.