The term “moderate Islam” and what it means for an individual to be a “moderate Muslim” are subjects that have been extensively debated.
In my journey of knowledge and research into Islam, I attempted to find texts from early Islamic or Qur’anic heritage that precisely and clearly define the meaning of “moderate Islam.” Unfortunately, I did not find a single text that provided what I was looking for.
The term “moderate Islam” is not used in early Islamic jurisprudential, theological, or philosophical texts.
There is discussion about “gentle Islam,” which treats people with kindness and equality, inviting them to submit to Allah and His “obedience freely”.
However, no early Islamic thinker uses the term “moderation,” which I believe, in its terminological and conceptual sense, differs from the concept of “gentleness.”
What adds to the ambiguity for me is that the religions of Christianity and Judaism also do not use the term “moderate” in their intellectual heritage. In Christianity, there are “conservative Christianity” and “liberal Christianity,” “Orthodox Christianity” and “Non-Orthodox Christianity,” “traditional Christianity” and “modern Christianity,” “textual principle Christianity” and “rational cognitive Christianity.” However, we do not find the term “moderate Christianity” used, neither in ancient patristic Christianity nor in contemporary Christianity, making it impossible to understand the concept of “moderate Islam” from a comparative religious perspective.
The term itself is perhaps unfortunate. “Moderate” implies a lesser quantity or degree of something.
A moderate leftist, for example, is not too far Left. Is a “moderate Muslim” not too Islamic?
To put it this way is to concede that Islam is, properly understood, antithetical to the West, and that at issue is only the intensity of the antipathy. By implication, this is to accept that terrorism is a natural corollary of an exacting fidelity to Islamic tenets–the very premise we presumably deny.
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| “Jihad As We Know From The Quran And The Authentic Sunnah Of The Prophet When The Conditions Are Met, That Is Moderate And That Is The Middle Path” — Younus Kathrada |
On October 16, 2022, the official YouTube channel of the Muslim Youth of Victoria published a video of a Friday sermon delivered by the South Africa-born Vancouver-based jihadi Islamist imam “Younus Kathrada” in which he denied that there are such things as radical or moderate Islam and argued that these terms are only used by the enemies of Islam and ignorant and hypocritical people.
According to Kathrada, all the commands of Islam, including waging jihad for the sake of Allah are moderate acts.
So far, I have not found scholarly research texts, documented and written by Muslim scholars and thinkers, that extensively, historically, critically, and scientifically explain what Muslims mean when they speak about “moderate Islam.”
What my humble readings have led me to understand is that the term “moderate Islam” is a contemporary concept resulting from political and strategic circumstances. Some Eastern Islamic religious authorities created it to confront Western media campaigns against the Arab and Islamic world following the September 11 attacks and the West’s confrontation with the threat of “Al-Qaeda.”
However, considering the tragic and catastrophic events occurring in the Arab world today under Islamic laws, and observing the practices, speeches, propositions, and positions of some Eastern Islamic parties claiming to represent “moderate Islam,” doubts arise.
They have been marketing the term “moderate Islam” extensively. Objective observers cannot help but recognise that one of the most ambiguous and undefined terms in the discourse of these influential Islamic parties (such as states, religious authorities, governments, systems, intellectuals, jihadist movements, etc.) is the term “moderate Islam.” Practices and positions, at the very least, do not reflect any kind of “tolerance, benevolence, and humility” in dealing with others.
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| Speaking at Kanal D TV’s Arena program, Recep Erdogan commented on the term “moderate Islam”, often used in the West and said, “These descriptions are very ugly, it is offensive and an insult to our religion. There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam and that’s it.” |
The Islamic world still intuitively and confidently uses the terminological product “moderate Islam” as if it knows exactly what it is talking about and what it means by this term, as if everyone has a unified, comprehensive understanding of the concept of moderation or of Islam as “moderate Islam.”
“Reformist-moderate Islam” is not limited to abstaining from terrorism only. It must include the dignity of gays and lesbians, full equality for women, respect for religious minorities, and tolerance of different viewpoints.
Does any of the Muslims of this generation provide audible calls and visual evidence for each of these principles?
Has anyone seen a single protest demonstration in the Islamic world condemning the terrorism pursued by Islamic militias/organisations?
Why don’t the common “Moderate Muslim” across the world raise their voice against the monstrosities committed by Islamic militias/organisations?
Does a “moderate Muslim” support women removing the hijab/veil?
Then why, when any veiled woman decides to remove her hijab/veil, is she subjected to pressure from Islamic authorities? She faces campaigns of moral and psychological defamation, is accused of apostasy, in her religion and faith?
Most of those who retract from wearing the hijab after wearing it are subjected to all forms of communal, familial, and street harassment.
They face targeted campaigns on social media. It is a psychological terrorism war.
Those who wear the hijab/veil are celebrated, and those who remove it are “sentenced to stoning”.
If a woman wears the hijab, she cannot retract from it. If she retracts from it, her fate is like that of an apostate, which may lead to murder.
Could a “moderate Muslim” reject the penalties resulting from removing the hijab/veil and stand against it publicly?
Is there a “moderate Muslim” who publicly rejects; “Female genital mutilation, the veil, enmity toward Jews and Christians, the stoning of adulteresses, and the killing of apostates and homosexuals”?
They do not need be explicitly pro-Europe-West, although it would be hard to cooperate with any who are consistently anti-Europe-West.
There are six questions to be asked of any such group:
Does it both espouse democracy and practice democracy within its own structures?
Does it eschew violence in pursuit of its goals?
Does it condemn terrorism?
Does it advocate equal rights for minorities?
Does it advocate equal rights for women?
Does it accept a pluralism of interpretations within Islam?
Muslims, three categories:
The percentage varies from one country to another, depending on the strength of the authorities in the countries, the percentage of Muslims in those countries, and the extent of freedoms granted.For example:In Russia, you won’t find street protests supporting Gaza, and the same goes for China.The same applies in Syria, even though the Assad regime has declared for 50 years that it supports Palestinians.In the Gulf Arab countries, we haven’t seen a single protest.
1- Muslims who are ignorant of the teachings of their religion throughout their lives, knowing only the worship rituals such as prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. They reconcile with life, with their neighbours in the community. They are elderly, living peacefully. Their number is very few compared to the total Muslim population, which exceeds one and a half billion.
According to Islamic teachings, these individuals may face entry into Hell because they did not embrace Islam and interacted with others, offering them congratulations on their holidays, which is considered “disbelief” in Islamic doctrine.
They are not called “moderates”; they deal gently with the world out of ignorance of their religion.
They imitate universal moral standards, where they seek to please others, exchange smiles, and avoid causing harm to others.
However, despite their ignorance of their religion’s teachings, they categorically reject any criticism of Islam and the Quran.
2- Muslims who truly understand Islam, they claim to be moderate “in front of Western societies.” They selectively extract “verses of tolerance” from the Quran, which were initially established by Muhammad to approach Christians, Jews, and his tribe. We have discussed this, and all these verses were actually abrogated.
These are the malicious exploiters who should not be trusted, and we should indeed awaken to their malice. They exploit Western democracy and try to Islamise democracy instead of democratising Islam. They also exploit the first category of naive Muslims we discussed in the first example, using their voices and speaking on their behalf.
Examples of this include Islamic centres in the West and Islamic political parties.
Representatives of political Islam, when asked, answered “Agree” to: “The ruler and society must guarantee the freedom of disbelief, apostasy from Islam, atheism, sexual freedoms, and homosexuality.” But is this real? of course No!
3- Then there are Muslims who are only concerned with power and influence, “the rulers of Arab & Islamic countries + religious leaders,” willing to sacrifice the first two categories for the sake of their staying atop the power pyramid, expanding their influence, and speaking on behalf of Muslims worldwide. Examples include Erdogan, Qatar, Al-Azhar Institute in Egypt (the largest Sunni Islamic institution), and the Iranian Supreme Leader.
There is yet another formation. This comprises a variety, working to construct interpretations of Muslim scripture that sustain moderation, modernity, and tolerance.
In the long run, this could! prove to be the most important group of all, but for the time being it has little political weight.
“Nothing in our faith says it’s OK to kill anyone.”Ahmed Bedier of “Council on American-Islamic Relations” CAIR.“Slay the unbelievers wherever ye find them…”
“Moderate Islam” is merely a linguistic game whose function is to propagate triviality, ignorance, superficiality, and to disdain intellect on a broad scale. In such a chaotic intellectual situation, there is nothing more dangerous than dealing with Islam as a concept known to everyone (both Muslims and non-Muslims alike), and there is nothing worse and more harmful than using the term “moderate Islam.”
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