"Moderate" Muslims

Submitted by Tzvi Tamari (Canada), Aug 17, 2006 at 21:16

Mr. Pipes:

You often refer to "moderate" Muslims. If by the term "moderate" you mean Muslims who have not as yet commited or spoken of commiting terrorist activities, fine. However these same "moderate" Muslims will show their commitment to Islam, when they feel that they can get away with it. Islam in its essence is a violent and repressive religion(?) that does not tolerate any other religion. I have read the Koran (in the original Arabic) numerous times.

I have lived for 15 years and tutored English in the Arab villages in my area (Lower Galilee), Majd El Krum, Deir El Assad, Baanah etc), without acknowledging my fluency in Arabic, and heard conversations that made it only to clear what "moderate" Muslims really think. Christian Arabs on the other hand mostly, mistrust their Muslim compatriots.

I feel that you should be more circumspect in your use of the term "moderate Muslims". There "ain't no such thing"!!!!

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Daniel Pipes replies:

Your experience reflects the fevered mood of this age, not historic realities or necessarily future ones. Your testimony is akin to someone reporting pro-Nazi conversations in a German village in the 1930s and concluding that a moderate German is an oxymoron. That would look silly 70 years later.

Moderate Muslims, fortunately, do indeed exist. For more details, see "Bibliography – My Writings on Naming Moderate Muslims,"