Idiots.<\/p>\n
So I\u2019ve written a couple posts on \u201cmoderate Islam\u201d over the last couple days, and, as I tend to do, when an article on the topic appeared at the National Review\u2019s Corner, I commented with a summary of my views and a link to the most recent post. \u00a0Some idiot \u2014 actually multiple idiots \u2014 accused me of spam because I had linked to my post, and, in fact, reported my comment as spam.<\/p>\n
So far as I can tell, only this particular comment has been deleted; I don\u2019t know if this \u201cmarks\u201d me in some way as far as my Disqus account and ability to comment on Discus-configured comment sections.<\/p>\n
But in reality, I think this was in response to the content of my post, which is, essentially, this:<\/p>\n
It is foolish for us Westerners, or even Muslims themselves, to claim that fundamentalist Muslims are not \u201creal Muslims.\u201d \u00a0The theology of these Muslims is rooted in their texts, and they can point to long-established traditions for even such extreme claims as the rightness of enslaving women in the name of Islam.<\/p>\n
They are<\/i> \u201creal Muslims,\u201d like it or not. \u00a0It makes us stupid to assert otherwise, and our continual assertion doesn\u2019t help in coming up with a way to solve the problem of the increasing power of extremist Islam.<\/p>\n
So far, so good. \u00a0But I think what got me \u201cflagged was spam\u201d was this: \u00a0to assert that a \u201cmoderate Islam\u201d is a similarly legitimate version of Islam. \u00a0In their view, Islam is wholly corrupt and irredeemable. <\/p>\n
Which is just as much a dead end as the reverse. \u00a0You\u2019re not going to convert Muslims, \u201cmoderate\u201d or \u201cfundamentalist,\u201d to Christianity, or any other faith. \u00a0It\u2019s not going to happen. \u00a0But maybe there is a chance that moderate Muslims could convert their extremist brethren to their faith.<\/p>\n
And while I\u2019ve questioned exactly what \u201cmoderate Islam\u201d looks like, or whether it has a coherent theology or theological \u201cgoverning body\u201d in the same way as the various strands of Traditional Islam do, there is nothing to prevent it from existing. <\/p>\n
I tried to compare this to the fact that some Christians take the Bible literally and others don\u2019t, but this didn\u2019t go anywhere except accusations of spam. \u00a0So let\u2019s compare this to a different religion:<\/p>\n
Before the eighteenth century, Judaism in Europe had followed the same set of ritual laws for millennia: \u00a0no work on the Sabbath, a complex set of practices around keeping Kosher, ritual purity laws, and so on. \u00a0It was unchanging \u2014 laws given by God through Moses and interpreted by ancient scholars. \u00a0This was what it meant to be a Jew; on this, sacred texts and scholars\u2019 interpretations both agreed.<\/p>\n