MODERATE MUSLIMS TWO-FRONT WAR

Yesterday's New York Times published an extremely important op-ed by UCLA law professor Kahled Abou El Fadl entitled Moderate Muslims Under Siege. In it, El Fadl describes the lonely position of moderate Muslim intellectuals in the West - on one hand battling with fundamentalists for the soul of their religion, and on the other front having to face an anti-Islamic backlash engendered by the rhetoric and acts of the fundamentalists. The article brought the following two issues to mind:

First, its become commonplace among hawks to snicker at phrases such as "Islam means peace" in response to Islamist demonstration of a very war-like Islam. But this does not mean that Islam cannot be a peaceful faith, or that all Muslims who profess to follow a peaceful Islam are frauds. It very much matters who wins the internal struggle within Islam for the soul of the religion. We need to see Islamic humanists as critical allies in this war, not foes or fools.

Second, one the major obstacles facing moderate Muslims in America El Fadl suggests is "the fanaticism of some supporters of Israel, who seem to deal with every manifestation of Islamic activism as a direct threat to Israel's existence." This however, is very much a skewed perspective of the issue. First, many of the Islamic organizations that scholars such as Daniel Pipes seek to discredit have a dubious claim to the mantel of moderation. The high profile of organizations such as CAIR is directly linked to generous funding from the very Wahabism that threatens El Fadl's Islam. Second, there is a disturbing trend among moderate Muslim intellectuals to use Israel as an issue to solidify their bona fides within the larger Islamic community. In other words, Salam al-Marayati may be in favor of a reading of the Muslim tradition that embraces modernity (his wife is a leader among Islamic feminists), but he's still going to explain away Palestinian terror, and reflexively accept any and all claims of Israeli wrongdoing. When "mainstream" American Muslims groups condemn Hamas' agenda no ifs ands or buts, and refrain from dehumanizing rhetoric when discussing Israel, only then will Jews be able to accept them as legitimate partners in dialogue.

Ultimately, I have faith in the moderate Muslims ability to craft a humanistic Islam out of the best elements of their faith. However, they must be honest with two facts: that they are currently losing the war to the fundamentalists; and that they will need special vigilance to resist the rising wave of anti-Semitism in the Muslim world that is attempting to pass as opposition to Israeli policy.