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Why there may never be a vibrant moderate Islam2 min read

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In a recent New York Times interview, 22-year-old Somali Muslim, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, was interviewed about her much anticipated book Infidel, which is being released in English today.  The exerpt below explains why “moderate Islam” is an oxymoron.

And every time there is a debate between a real jihadi  and, say, what we have  decided to call moderate  Muslims, the jihadis win. Because they come with the Koran and quotes from the Koran. The come with quotes from the Hadith and the Sunnah, and the traditions of the prophet. And every assertion they make, whether it is that women should be veiled, or Jews should be killed, or Americans are our enemies, or any  of that, they win. Because what they have to say is so consistent  with what is written in the Koran and the Hadith.

Translation?  Islam is, by it’s own definition, a religion of oppression, terror, judgment, and hatred.  It is, quite honestly, evil, to be assigned to the manure pile of bankrupt ideologies like Nazism, Stalinism, and Social Darwinism.  And it stinks even worse than those.

Ali holds out that it can be reformed, but as I discussed in Three Types of Reformation, it can only really be liberalized, which changes it into something wholly other than what it is – just another ethical system with nice metaphors and legends for tepid inspiration.  But I guess that’s better than a murderous revealed faith.  You can hear the audio of the interview also at the NYT.