No Moderation in Islam

Asia Times:

A self-described revolution in world affairs has begun in the heart of one man. He is the Italian journalist and author Magdi Cristiano Allam, whom Pope Benedict XVI baptized during the Easter Vigil at St Peter's. Allam's renunciation of Islam as a religion of violence and his embrace of Christianity denotes the point at which the so-called global "war on terror" becomes a divergence of two irreconcilable modes of life: the Western way of faith supported by reason, against the Muslim world of fatalism and submission.

Cristiano echoes some of my thoughts here:

Magdi Allam has a powerful voice as deputy editor of Italy's newspaper of record, Corriere della Sera, and a bestselling author. For years he was the exemplar of "moderate Islam" in Europe, and now he has decided that Islam cannot be "moderate".

Since September 2001, the would-be wizards of Western strategy have tried to conjure an "Islamic reformation", or a "moderate Islam", or "Islamic democracy". None of this matters now, for as Magdi Allam tells us, the matter on the agenda is not to persuade Muslims to act like liberal Westerners, but instead to convince them to cease to be Muslims.

Such persuasion can be hazardous. It's not particularly healthy to converse with those who, likely, believe that a murtad ought to be slaughtered.

Comments

[Saul Wall]

That is why, while I'm a secularist at heart, I have to admit that Christianity is a helpful resource against Islam. It has less fear of the implications of converting Muslims since it sees letting people live in Islam as more dangerous than encouraging them to risk apostate status. It also provides a community of support for apostates in a Muslim land or community. And people who live in insecure environments tend to embrace religion for stability. Since Christianity leaves the door towards secularism open as a matter of personal faith, it is a far safer short-term phenomenon. Once Muslim lands become more prosperous, secure and free they will likely start to move in the direction of secularism as Western nations (even, to a lesser degree, the USA) but Christian evangelism could be helpful in mitigating the damage which Islam does to these lands and their economy and social structure.

I recently read an article about how the tiny step of allowing women in Saudi Arabia to drive could ripple through the economy. In the absence of the expense of a chauffeur expense, family disposable income will rise and economic possibilities for women will begin to open up. It is no great leap but as people who don't share the "submit and obey" mentality become more numerous and prosperous they could begin to guild their nations in the right direction.

But the Pope's act, by keeping the issue of Islam's view of apostates in the public discourse is also likely to provide some psychological support for closet secular apostates in Muslim lands.