Need for genuine outreach

Submitted by John Hadjisky (United States), Apr 8, 2004 at 15:48

I'm as big a fan of being realistic as the next person, and Dr. Pipes' efforts in that regard are of vital importance. Islamists organizations have clearly grasped the American culture's hunger to hear moderate voices in Islam and have no scruples about exploiting this hunger ruthlessly. Yet in the long term, I belive this very hunger, the product of our "naive" melting pot heritage, will be the creative force that will eventually help Islam to survive and transcend its contemporary problems.

We fans of Pipes need to aspire to combine our criticism with something more creative and affirming. Specifically, while remaining honest critics of Islamists movements and deceptions, we need to also perform more outreach towards genuinely moderate voices in Islam. True, there are links to a number of genine moderate Muslims who endorse Dr. Pipes with favorable blurbs, but the context is such that these authors are cited to strengthen the credibility of Dr. Pipes site, i.e. they are there to help this site; Other than the occasional book review, what is this site doing to help them?

Why not have a designated spot on the home page for an article or feature that uses the credibility and mind-share this site already has to promote, support, and strengthen genuine Muslim moderates? True, such moderates are few and far between...which is all the more reason we need to use whatever leverage is available to strengthen these voices.

One of my close friends, a second generation Pakistani Canadian, is not religious, but values both his Muslim and secular North American heritage. I've gotten to know him well enough that I can say with certainty, he is a genuine moderate. Yet all he sees at this site is criticism. He acknowledges much of it is spot-on, and is genuinely alienated by the hate spewing from the Islamist movement, but he is also alienated by the fact that this site's overall direction is so frankly critical.

I am not proposing we go easy on the Islamists, merely that we allocate some reasonably high-traffic space on the home page to promote a positive view of moderate Islam, or link to other sites that do. Alternatively, perhaps Dr. Pipes could resolve to find one positive item about moderate Islam to include in every other blog update. Or every third blog. You get the idea.

Honest, informed criticism is vital to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past in the future. But, criticism rarely creates, it mostly tears down. Can there not be some modest resources allocated towards creating a future?

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