Particularly in current times, its important to highlight that there is a vast deal of differences in beliefs and ideology of Fundamental groups (such as the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, Hammas and the Muslim Brotherhood) and your every day run-of-the mill Muslim person.
The fundamental and puritan Islamist approach is a based on a literal interpretation of Islamic teachings, obsessed with implementation of the legalistic aspect of Islam, often at the cost of overshadowing the spiritual journey Islam is meant to be for Muslims; to sum it up in 3 words, fundamental Islam is narrow minded literalism.
The aim of most fundamental groups is to replicate the "Golden Age" of Islam i.e. time of the prophet. Therefore, modernity and pretty much everything the "west" has to offer (such as democracy, reason, science, feminism etc) is rejected. Boo.
Moderate Islam, on the other hand, is all about reconciling Islamic teachings with modernity; Islam is seen as fluid and thus adaptable to all times, people and circumstances, whilst still keeping to it's same core principles. If Islam was not fluid, it would not have survived, right? Therefore, moderate Islam is not obsessed with re-creating the Golden age with the optimism that it will become an Islamic utopia .. and therefore again, moderates don't hate the West. Hurrah.
So.. how to tell who's who?.. Well, chances are the moderates (who are the overwhelming majority) will be doing pretty *moderate* things ...living their lives, practicing Islam casually.. without expressing their devotion with any radical displays
...whilst the not-so-moderates will probably be all the Muslims who make it on the news. Boo again.
In terms of how things currently stand, i've narrowed stuff down to two options.
Either;
- A lot of the differences between the two groups aren't well known (or maybe not cared about) & because of this, moderates and extremists are seen as one ideology professed in either a softly softly approach or an in-your-face oneor
- People believe all Muslims are the same, thus there is no moderates and extremists
The reason why I added the latter? Because of a lot of material I came across online, such as the following taken from here (the aptly named "Myth of the Moderate Muslim");
"Every "moderate" Muslim is a potential terrorist. The belief in Islam is like a can of gasoline. It looks innocuous, until it meets the fire. For a "moderate" Muslim to become a murderous jihadist, all it takes is a spark of faith. It is time to put an end to the charade of "moderate" Islam. There is no such thing as a moderate Muslim. Muslims are either jihadists or dormant jihadists- moderate, they are not."
Erm. Yikes.
Now, whilst the optimist in me thinks re-education is the key, can re-education about Islam ever truly overcome these Neo-Crusader views? ...I know random internet articles are not a reliable basis of judgment of whats going on, but trust me, go google 'moderate muslim' or something similar and you'll see that there really is a lot of negativity. And if internet is a voice of the people, then i'd say it's pretty worrying.
...What is a moderate anyway? We know what the extremists stand for, but how about the moderates? ...I once heard it said 'if you stand for nothing, you fall for anything' ....have the moderates fallen for a dream that they could ever wholly be accepted in Western society, when 1000(ish) years on from the Crusades, if you peel away the political correctness and facade, not much has appeared to have changed.
Paranoia?
Reality?
Whatchya think. guys?
Interesting blog. It's rather surprising to see that despite the supposed tolerance of Islam, there are sinister underlying thoughts, because I agree that the internet really does reflect views of people, and perhaps views they wouldn't put across without the protection of on-line anonymity.
ReplyDeleteI think in terms of what moderates are, that they somewhat shoot themselves in the foot by labelling themselves as such and therefore making themselves a deviation from the original, rather than another way of perceiving it.
I also don't think its paranoia when your argument is based on something substantial.
Thanks for the comment, Jo.
ReplyDeleteYeah, its interesting to consider whether the people posting anti-Islamic hate speech online would ever be as opinionated in person.
I guess in some ways it is cliche for moderates to call themselves moderate, because their responses to pretty much everything will always be middle of the road, and middle of the road responses tend not to be progressive.