Where are the moderate Muslims?

One hears a lot of angry rhetoric from the few violent Muslim fundamentalists around the world, but surprisingly little public refutation from the many moderate Muslims.

This may be because at heart they agree with the radicals, or because they are afraid to speak out, or because they feel the ties of religion obligate them side philosophically with the radicals, or simply because they aren’t as good at getting their message out as the radicals.

Or perhaps moderate Muslims, especially if they live outside the Middle East, think this isn’t their fight, so they don’t need to get involved. But it is their fight. It is their religion, Islam, that the terrorists use to justify their actions. So unless moderates Muslims speak out strongly in opposition, the world is naturally going to assume they are in sympathy with the terrorists, and act accordingly. The actions of the violent fundamentalists imperil all Muslims.

Thus far the world, and America in particular, has managed not to blame all Muslims for the actions of a relatively few radicals. There were a few, a very few, attacks on Muslims immediately after 9/11, but in general the political powers in the Western nations have promoted the idea that the fanatical few don’t represent the attitudes of the majority of the world’s Muslims. Religious profiling is still in general not politically correct.

However, that all could change in an instant if any one of the many Islamic fundamentalists groups ever manage to launch a truly damaging attack on a Western nation, and especially if they succeeded in such an attack on the USA. Set off a small nuclear weapon in a major Western city, or loose a devastating bioweapon on the world and rational tolerance will probably go out the window in an instant. Especially if the aftermath again includes TV pictures of Muslims dancing in the streets in celebration. The response is unlikely to be rational or just or proportional or moral – but it will most likely be overwhelming and devastating to Muslims worldwide, not only immediately but probably for generations to come.

The jihadists, who may know their own history but clearly don’t know much Western history, think that the resulting chaos will work to their advantage. It won’t – it will finally truly mobilize the major powers to hunt them to extermination, but that hunt is not likely to be very selective or much constrained by civil liberties, and lots of moderate Muslims will suffer.

So it seems to me that moderate Muslims, for their own long-term safety and the safety of their children and grandchildren, and even for the safety of Islam, need to be seen to speak up, loudly and publicly and often, against the excesses of their fundamentalist brethren. If they don’t, they are likely to be tarred with the same brush as the terrorists.