Little Green Footballs[*1] discusses an article in the U.K.’s
Spectator titled “The myth of moderate Islam.” Excerpt:
Muslims must stop this self-deception. They must with honesty recognize the violence that has existed in their history in the same way that Christians have had to do, for Christianity has a very dark past. Some Muslims have, with great courage, begun to do this.Secondly, they must look at the reinterpretation of their texts, the Koran, hadith and Sharia, and the reformation of their faith. Mundir Badr Haloum has described this as ‘exorcising’ the terrorism from Islam. Mahmud Muhammad Taha argued for a distinction to be drawn between the Meccan and the Medinan sections of the Koran. He advocated a return to peaceable Meccan Islam, which he argued is applicable to today, whereas the bellicose Medinan teachings should be consigned to history. For taking this position he was tried for apostasy, found guilty and executed by the Sudanese government in 1985.
Unless there is serious reform within Islam, the 21st Century will continue to see the worldwide resurgence of the most heartless and terrible of all human activities: the religious war. Let me be clear: religious intolerance and violence is not restricted to Islam. We see the depravity of religious war in the Arab-Israeli wars, the IRA “troubles,” the Palestinian problems, attacks of 9/11 and the Spanish and London bombings, among many other atrocities. While religious fanaticism of any stripe holds within it the seeds of sectarian hatred, most religious warfare going on in the world today involves Islam. We are all of us edging towards the brink of a long, long fall. To say “it could get nasty” would be a drastic understatement. The only group right now with the power to pull us back from the brink is the worldwide community of Muslims, because it is the most violent and radical elements of Islam which are pushing us toward global religious war.
