The "Moderates"

A ten-dollar bill us in the center of the crossroads. To the north, there's Santa Claus. To the west, the Tooth Fairy. To the east, a radical Muslim. To the south, a moderate Muslim. Who reaches the ten-dollar bill first?

The answer of course is the radical Muslim. All the others are mythical creatures.

I am not sure if I have met any moderate Muslim. All the Muslims I have met in school or at work were devout Muslims, who would keep their austere fast regime during the month of Ramadan, pray five times a day etc.

Recently there was a long discussion on Retributions about the European veil ban. There was an Indian Muslim commenter on the thread called Adnan. There was a Muslima called Mariam too, possibly from Pakistan. Please visit the thread, you may be surprised.

Now a little thought experiment. Imagine the worst Tamil derogatory stereotype you can think of. Then imagine I call Abi by that name. Is he gonna like it? Probably not. The same thing happens when you (meaning the good natured and clueless socialist) picks on Muslims on the street and tries to label them moderate. You have to understand, one of the basic ideas of Islam is how severely you can observe your religion, a tenet all (okay, most, if you feel uncomfortable) Muslims live by. Now, he is just trying to live his life, praying as many times as he can, fasting during Ramadan, hoping to pay a visit to the shrine (subsidized of course) at least once in his lifetime. How dare you jump in and call him moderate? Calling a Muslim man moderate is a grave insult, it essentially suggests he is not Muslim enough.

Moderate Muslims exist in a fantasy land inhabited by the likes of Dlip D'Souza, in anecdotes and stories that win essay competitions. We are supposed to believe that they exist, for if we don't, we are Hindu fascists, right-wing hate monger etc.

[Updates and our views on the Sachar report follows.]