Henry Saltzman's comments on moderate Islam

Submitted by Taylor (United States), Jul 2, 2008 at 19:37

There is another problem with relying upon moderate Muslims, and that is that at least some -- and, I suspect, many -- are steeped in the anti-Americanism of their cultural brethren; thus, I was invited to hear a moderate Muslim Canadian woman speak on moderate Islam. Before attending I read her book on the subject, only to have her deny, in front of her large audience, that her book had anywhere blamed America for the murder of millions around the world. She publicly denied this, when I asked her to elaborate, even though she gave out copies of the book to those who wished to receive them, knowing that her lie would be exposed.

And she reacted to my question not by truthfully agreeing that she had indeed written this and explaining what she meant, by specifically giving examples, but instead by attacking me, suggesting that in fact I must be some sort of anti -Muslim bigot.

I concluded from this experience that moderate Muslims may well harbor many views that would surprise and disappoint the average American, even if they do not subscribe to radical Islam. Thus, they may be less inclined to criticise the radicals than we might hope.

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