February 9, 2006

Commentary

The battered Muslim moderate

Rob Asghar

LONDON — European newspapers and the BBC display Danish cartoons, some of which portray Islam’s prophet as a violent man. Finding this to be an insulting lie, his followers in Palestinian territories storm buildings and threaten innocent European civilians.

Who will save us from such deadly ironies? For a long time, I was confident that Islam’s moderate believers, found by the millions from Indonesia to Pakistan to London to Los Angeles, would keep the so-called clash of civilizations from escalating.

Yet they have been invisible in recent days, while more vocal counterparts have protested wildly in the streets of London, and across Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere.

The protest signs, banners and chants were disorienting: “Free speech go to hell,” “Death to those who insult Islam” and “UK, you must pray, 7-7 is on its way” (a threat to repeat the London bombings of last July 7).

The tumult is already worse than 1989’s Salman Rushdie saga. Given Rushdie’s cultural background, he knew he was whipping a rock at a hornet’s nest. But a non-Muslim Western cartoonist need not heed Islamic rules that forbid depictions — flattering or otherwise — of its prophet.

I visited London’s Central Mosque in Regent’s Park last Friday and found two relatively moderate young men from Kosovo who said that they planned not to attend any protests and that they would not defend the extravagant reactions of Muslim militants in the Middle East. “It is ignorance that causes this,” said one, with a shrug. But their opposition to their peers’ threats of violence seemed to end there.

It is becoming obvious why moderates, though they are the majority within Islam, have not taken command of their congregation. Moderates are by definition unwilling to be martyrs. Extremists are by definition martyrs. Put a moderate up against a martyr, and the martyr always wins.

Take it from the moderate’s perspective: If you were asked to support either your violent spouse or your mildly irritating neighbor, how would you choose? Like the beleaguered, codependent spouse, the moderate shuns danger, while ironically perpetuating it.

We can sympathize with the plight of Muslim moderates in the West. We can also offer up questions that only they can pose to their extremist kindred who live in the West:

• Can you embrace Western laws that preserve a variety of viewpoints, including your own? Can you appreciate consistent rules for civil discourse, whether or not you comprise a majority within a nation?

• If you come to the West in search of more money despite the West’s moral weakness, is that not a moral lapse of your own — and if so, don’t you have to worry more about the destination of your own soul rather than about cartoons drawn by sinful Westerners?

• If you reserve the right to condemn homosexuals or Hindus, can you accept others’ right to question your or your faith?

• Are you willing to trust God to sort out on the Day of Judgment the fates of those who have offended him? Don’t you appear a bit agnostic by taking divine matters into your own hands?

• Is God more insulted by scribblings of Danish cartoonists, or by the ineffectiveness of the Muslim world relative to the nations of Hindus, Christians, Jews and atheists? Is it time to recognize that living well is the best revenge?

There are also questions that Muslim moderates in the West must ask of themselves:

• Far-right groups are gaining force. Last week, a far-right British pol was acquitted of racial-hate charges for his comments against Islam, and he promised to heat up his rhetoric. Do you see how both Muslim and Western fanatics are seeking to polarize you, while destroying the rich soul of your religion?

• What rights are you willing to demand for yourselves? You do not want a Taliban regime. Do you want to take pictures of your children with your new Canon camera, even though fundamentalists claim that orthodox Islam forbids any imagery of humans or animals? Are you willing to live in a world of their design, in which you will be persecuted for your relative liberalism?

• Whose side will you choose if the extremists continue to force the hand of Western governments? The Quran is clear that a good Christian or Jew will make it into heaven ahead of a bad professing Muslim. If push comes to shove, will you side with these good Christians and Jews? Your residence in the West seems to imply a “yes,” but words and actions must buttress this.

The battered wife at last pushes away the source of tyranny in her life. We can only hope that battered Muslims do, too.