Are Moderate Muslims Terrorists Too?

Fundamentals of Fundamentalist Islam.
"The terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11th"... London on July 7th, Madrid on March 11th, Beslan (Chechnya) Sept 1-3...has raised many questions about Islam. Media commentators, "assert that true Islam is basically a peace loving religion".... Yet, some blame, "every Muslim for the horrific deeds in question as if all Islam is a terrorizing Islam. But, what's the truth? Is Islam a violent, terrorizing religion  . . . or not? The answer is not as simple as some have made it seem.... There are several interpretations of what constitutes true Islam in the Islamic world... " (Source 1)
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Ever wonder if you are being unfair to the followers of Islam by generalizing too much about their beliefs and their culture? I did a little research and came up with lots of "soft"-on-Muslim pieces written by blatantly apologetic writers. (Can't, just can't, call them journalists. And, don't look at me, they shall continue to remain nameless here.) I also came up with what looks to me to be a pretty understandable, statistical piece about the state of Islam in the world in this decade.

It divides Muslims into 3 groups: Fundamentalist, Liberal, and Moderate and gives the reader an idea of how each might differ and where in the world each group is concentrated. The piece was updated last in 2002. I think if you can wrap your brain around the huge numbers involved, you might find the stats interesting. I know it's hard to compare the difference between 180 million and 360 million--after 1 million the mind sort of gets bogged down. But do the best you can with it. I also have some comments in a postscript at the end.

Disclaimer: This is my valiant attempt at balance. I must have eaten oysters or something yesterday and now my sense of indignation has lost its punch. Don't worry, it'll wear off before lunch. I already feel rising ire for including the piece in the blog and am sending myself for a "time out" to think over how the Muslims already have too many cheerleaders in the press... Not that there's anything wrong with that.
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Fundamentals of Fundamentalist Islam.
"THE TRUTH IS that a significant constituency of  Muslims interpret Islam in a way that absolutely demands the kind of brutal violence we witnessed...in the name of fidelity to Islam and its Holy Places. We'll call this FUNDAMENTALIST ISLAM. Fundamentalist Islam is very similar to the kind of Islam practiced from A.D. 622 to c. 1500."

"America, known to the Islamic world as a Christian nation, supports Israel 's occupation of the third holiest place in Islam (Jerusalem). America stands in the way of recovering other Islamic lands as well. And America is an obstacle to worldwide Islamic expansion. Therefore American people, military and civilians alike, are the enemy of Islam and may be killed as long as they stand in the way of Islam. This kind of Islam is not a fringe movement as it has often been described. The number of Muslims in this camp may be as many as 300 million.* Fundamentalist Muslims may be found in significant numbers in many Islamic countries.  The most notorious leaders of Fundamentalist Islam include Ayatollah Khomeini from Iran (deceased) and Osama bin Laden from Saudi Arabia."

"THE TRUTH IS that there is also a constituency of the Islamic world that absolutely rejects Fundamentalist Islam in favor of a kind of Islam influenced more by Western sensibilities about religious toleration. We'll call this LIBERAL ISLAM. A majority of American Muslims and European Muslims fall in this camp. They would never consent to the killing of civilians in order to advance Islam, and they would only rarely consent to violence for the indirect defense of Islamic interests. The size of this constituency is probably significantly smaller than Fundamentalist Islam. The number of Muslims that embrace Liberal Islam is probably less than 100 million worldwide."

"THE TRUTH IS that the largest constituency of the Islamic world has a  very complicated view of the use of violence to defend and advance Islam that permits warlike activity in some cases but not in others. We'll call this MODERATE ISLAM. Moderate Islam is probably split about the justness of the violent action perpetrated on America by Fundamentalist Islam in"... London, Madrid, "New York and Washington. Moderate Islam navigates between early Islam practiced by Mohammed and the Caliphs from A.D. 622 to the late middle ages and Liberal Islam influenced heavily by the ideas of Western modernity. There may be as many as 600 million Muslims in the camp of Moderate Islam."

"THEREFORE THE SUMMARY TRUTH IS...
1) A very large number of Fundamentalist Muslims in the world supports the kind of terrorism advanced upon..." the USA, London, Madrid and other countries.
2) Liberal Islam on the other hand abhors the attacks... in the name of Islam. Liberal Islam is composed mostly of American and European Muslims.
3) Between the above two extreme positions lies Moderate Islam, which represents the vast majority of Islam. Moderate Muslims are conflicted about the attack on America. Some Moderate Islamic teachings can be interpreted to support the attack and some Moderate Islamic teachings can be interpreted to reject the attack. Moderate Islam often finds itself in the position of tacitly approving the violent conduct of Fundamentalist Islam by failing to stand against it because it is Islam.
4) American expressions of Islam are probably composed of an equal number of Liberal Muslims and Moderate Muslims together with a very small number of Fundamentalist Muslims.
5) If only 5% of  Muslims in the world are Fundamentalist Muslims which support the... terrorist acts..., then America has 60 million Muslim enemies in the world.
6) If only 5% of Muslims in America are Fundamentalist Muslims which support the... terrorist acts..., then America has 300 thousand Muslim enemies living within its borders.
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*The populations of the three groups of Muslims presented in this essay are not hard statistical numbers. They are very rough estimates designed to communicate two big ideas: the large numbers of Fundamentalist Muslims and the numbers of each group in relation to each other.

Update: In February 2002, however, Gallup Poll released the results of polling data that may yield a more scientific estimation of the size of Islamic Fundamentalism. About 10,000 adult Muslims in nine Islamic countries were polled. 15% of those polled said that the September 11th attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon were morally justified. If this percentage is found to be representative of the entire Muslim worldwide population, then it could be argued that there is statistical evidence to support the claim that there may be as many as 180 million adult Fundamentalist Muslims who believe that the September 11th attacks were morally justified. If an equal number of Muslim children agree with their adult counterparts, then it could also be argued that there may be as many as 360 million Fundamentalist Muslims who believe that the September 11th attacks were morally justified."
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Post Script: We're talking about a lot of folks here--an educated estimate of between 180 MILLION and 360 MILLION--who believe on some level that the attacks on September 11 were justified. And, probably more than 600 thousand Fundamentalists are living within our borders right now! I don't know about you, but these overwhelming statistics don't make me feel all warm and fuzzy about trusting the the future to any of the members of Islam.

The Liberal Muslims seem to be to only ones who do not like what the terrorists are doing. They are the smallest component of the group, and they are pretty quiet about their feelings. OK, so they wouldn't personally harm Infidels and they don't like that other Muslims do. In spite of that, they certainly have no motivation to rebuke the terrorists' acts at this point. What good can come to them and their families for speaking out against their majority? There are plenty of vivid examples of how the Fundamentalists "thank" those who do not honor them and their actions.

Ok. I feel better now. The oysters have certainly worn off and I'm not feeling guilty for overdoing the balance thing at all. Carry on.
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Source 1: Essay By Cky J. Carrigan, Ph.D. (Sep 24, 2001, rev.2-27-02) See link below.
Source 2: Total population of Muslims in the United States seems to be a hard number to pin down. For purposes of argument, the number 6 million was used for calculations in #6 above. Frequently estimates fluctuate between 5 and 8 million. Muslims seem to inflate the numbers so as to have greater political clout, according to all references Googled by me. I'm also citing 8,790,000 because I feel the need to justify the numbers above with a second and a muslim source. They say they are not overestimating but no one is actually sure. Estimates in the post, therefore, are very conservative. I did not quote Source 2 in the post--just used the data to validate the stats. Here's the location you can find source 2: http://www.iiie.net/Intl/PopStats.html