After every terrorist attack,
politicians and pundits reassure us that the atrocity does not represent
mainstream Islam and certainly doesn’t reflect the true beliefs of the
“moderate Muslim majority.” But how many moderate Muslims are there? And what
exactly does “moderate” mean? Hussein Aboubakr [photo], who was raised as a Muslim in
Egypt, explains, and asks an important question: where are all the moderate
Muslims that politicians and the media talk about?
After every new Jihadist
attack against the West, politicians reassure us that the atrocity does not
represent the true nature of mainstream Islam. Of the 1.6 billion Muslims in
the world, they constantly reassure us, the overwhelming majority are as law
abiding as any members of any other monotheistic faith. Only a tiny fraction
engage in terror. And Islam is a religion of peace. Furthermore, we are told,
the great majority of Muslims hold moderate views.
But what does that mean? How
moderate are moderate Muslims? Given the threat of radical Islam, it would seem
to be a fair question. Let me start to answer it by telling you something of my
own story.
I was raised in a middle class
Muslim home in Cairo, Egypt. Growing up, I was told, among many other things,
the following: That every day that passes on the Islamic nation without a
caliphate is a sin. That the failures and miseries of the Muslim world started
the moment we Muslims gave up conquests and wars against the infidels. That our
prosperity depended on conquering new lands and converting new believers. That
anyone who leaves the faith must die. And I also remember how my teachers and
my mosque imams reacted to the news of 9/11 when it happened: joy.
My experience was typical, and
there is data to prove it: According to the Pew Research Center, 88% of Muslims
in Egypt, 62% in Pakistan, 86% in Jordan and 51% in Nigeria believe that any
Muslim who choses to leave Islam should be put to death. Similar, if not
identical, numbers are in favor of stoning people who commit adultery, severely
punishing those who criticize Muhammad or Islam, and chopping off hands for
theft.
All of these practices are a
part of the penal code of Islamic law, which is known as Sharia. And 84% of
Muslims in South Asia, 77% in Southeast Asia, 74% in the Middle East and North
Africa and 64% in Sub-Saharan Africa support Sharia as the law of the land.
Less drastic, yet significant, percentages are to be found even among Muslim
communities in the West.
So, too, most of the world's
Muslims believe that any acts of violence against Israel, including suicide
bombers in buses and restaurants, are justified. Now, does any of this sound
moderate to you? Yet if anyone raises these inconvenient truths here in the
West, he is sure to be called an Islamophobe, a hater of Islam. Again, my own
story is instructive.
In February of 2015, I was
yelled at, cursed at, and successfully prevented from speaking at Swarthmore
College by students and others who did not agree to what I was saying. Some of
them were Muslim women who fit the image of the unveiled, perfect
English-speaking, moderate Muslim young woman. Other seeming “moderates” tried
and failed to do the same during my speech at Temple University the next day.
Some of them, sadly, were students of journalism.
Hussein Aboubakr, PragerU
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