What is a moderate Muslim?

I keep hearing on the news that moderate Muslims need to "stand up and denounce" the radical branch of that religion (you know, the false branch, the rotten one that needs cutting off). They need to "rise up and," well, do something. In American political parlance, when we describe, for example, a Republican politician as "moderate" on abortion, what we mean is that he is in favor of killing babies in the womb in some situations but not all.

So what is a "moderate" Muslim moderate about? What is he moderating? Is he in favor of terrorism some of the time but not all? Does he walk a fine line between a fanatical bloodlust and the brotherhood of man? Between the passionate piety of the devout and the indifferentism of the couch potato? Would the moderate Muslim, in a Muslim majority society, embrace equality of citizenship for all? That is, would a Christian be allowed to vote, hold any job for which he's qualified, permitted complete freedom of worship? Jews? Does the moderate Muslim love Jews? Does he wish to live in comity with them? Are they as much children of God as he? What about other Muslims? Can they convert to Christianity with the moderate Muslim's blessing, or at least without his laying down a fatwa?

These are honest questions, asked because I don't know the answers. If I said of a man, "He's a decent fellow, and very pleasant company, because so moderate in his Christianity," would this make sense to anyone? Does it mean that he goes to church once a week instead of every day, avoids absolute prohibitions in moral matters, never disturbs the affability of a social gathering, or the political public square, with his intrusive religious convictions?

If Islam is truly a religion of peace, it seems to me we ought to hear from the true peacemakers, the ones who hold close to their hearts the reminder to 'love thy neighbor as thyself.' After all, they shall be called the Children of God.


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Kevin Jones says:
February 26, 2015 at 11:24 am (Edit)
Here’s a Syrian refugee I met in Jordan who was very civilized and open. The Christians who helped him made him feel “like a brother,” and he told me “I am a brother for any Christian, just as Jesus and Mohammed were brothers.”
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/amid-syrian-refugee-relief-christians-and-muslims-find-fellowship-51963/
He was astonished that the democratic protests against Assad had turned into civil war so quickly. He was suffering from inter-Muslim fighting in Syria (which they see more as political, not religious) and also hated the Islamic radicalism and religious war represented by Daesh / ISIS. In a way it would be insulting to him if you insisted that he condemn their obvious barbarism.
He was one of many people too busy dealing with local problems to worry how things look to a Western audience.
At the same time, it is illegal for Muslims to convert to Christianity in relatively progressive Jordan (don’t know the status in Syria). I think it is very difficult to separate Muslim-Jewish relations from the political role of Israel in the region. Christian-Muslim relations, too. — I met a Palestinian Christian whose mother was born in Bethlehem but he grew up as a refugee in Jordan.

William Luse says:
February 27, 2015 at 3:27 am (Edit)
Thanks for the link to the article. I’ll read it.
“…who was very civilized and open.”
So are Jews his brothers, too?
“I am a brother for any Christian, just as Jesus and Mohammed were brothers.”
Not to nitpick, but Mohammed and Jesus weren’t brothers, in any sense of the word. The former came to destroy the latter. It’s hard to have anything but sympathy for the fellow in question, but he wasn’t the sort of Muslim I had in mind in the OP. The question remains.