Reflections on the “Moderate Muslims” Debate

I reviewed all of the answers of my respected colleagues and find that I agree with most of their points. Therefore, in my comments, I would like to focus on some points that researchers should concentrate on in order to enrich our understanding and comprehension of the Muslim community in the Unit...

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Autor principal: Taha Jabir al-Alwani
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Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: International Institute of Islamic Thought 2005
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Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/0c73e77fc8634d1280f6d4f54e3544f2
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:0c73e77fc8634d1280f6d4f54e3544f22021-12-02T18:18:44ZReflections on the “Moderate Muslims” Debate2690-37332690-3741https://doaj.org/article/0c73e77fc8634d1280f6d4f54e3544f22005-07-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ajis.org/index.php/ajiss/article/view/3023https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3733https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3741 I reviewed all of the answers of my respected colleagues and find that I agree with most of their points. Therefore, in my comments, I would like to focus on some points that researchers should concentrate on in order to enrich our understanding and comprehension of the Muslim community in the United States. Doing so will help engender good and strong relations among the different groups in American society. On Moderate Muslims: Before I explain the term moderate Muslim, I would like to indicate that American officials have trouble working with moderate Muslims because they see moderates as pragmatists who will change their positions based on their interests and use religion or sacred symbols to gain followers and support. True moderates use certain aspects of religion for their political interests and, in this way, become more intimidating to the fundamentalist or Islamist policymakers who do not hide their right-wing extremism and desire to hold on to their past culture. Such moderates, who are political pragmatists but theological lightweights, are easy to work with and more understandable. But their understanding of Islam is naïve and composed of stagnant interpretations. These moderate Muslims accept most or all of the most important western values related to politics, economics, education, and practical life. This puts them in a better position to understand the western mind, how it thinks, and how to interact with it based on its own methodologies. Extremist Muslims allow no change in their culture, look at history impassively, and consider any changes in life as quantitative, not qualitative. Thus, they believe that they can resurrect history and bring back the earlier Islamic centuries, especially the time of the Companions, by respecting their paths, methodologies, and tools. However, such attitudes make them, in the westerners’ opinion, out-of-touch with modern realities and they are, therefore, easily isolated ... Taha Jabir al-AlwaniInternational Institute of Islamic ThoughtarticleIslamBP1-253ENAmerican Journal of Islam and Society, Vol 22, Iss 3 (2005)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic Islam
BP1-253
spellingShingle Islam
BP1-253
Taha Jabir al-Alwani
Reflections on the “Moderate Muslims” Debate
description I reviewed all of the answers of my respected colleagues and find that I agree with most of their points. Therefore, in my comments, I would like to focus on some points that researchers should concentrate on in order to enrich our understanding and comprehension of the Muslim community in the United States. Doing so will help engender good and strong relations among the different groups in American society. On Moderate Muslims: Before I explain the term moderate Muslim, I would like to indicate that American officials have trouble working with moderate Muslims because they see moderates as pragmatists who will change their positions based on their interests and use religion or sacred symbols to gain followers and support. True moderates use certain aspects of religion for their political interests and, in this way, become more intimidating to the fundamentalist or Islamist policymakers who do not hide their right-wing extremism and desire to hold on to their past culture. Such moderates, who are political pragmatists but theological lightweights, are easy to work with and more understandable. But their understanding of Islam is naïve and composed of stagnant interpretations. These moderate Muslims accept most or all of the most important western values related to politics, economics, education, and practical life. This puts them in a better position to understand the western mind, how it thinks, and how to interact with it based on its own methodologies. Extremist Muslims allow no change in their culture, look at history impassively, and consider any changes in life as quantitative, not qualitative. Thus, they believe that they can resurrect history and bring back the earlier Islamic centuries, especially the time of the Companions, by respecting their paths, methodologies, and tools. However, such attitudes make them, in the westerners’ opinion, out-of-touch with modern realities and they are, therefore, easily isolated ...
format article
author Taha Jabir al-Alwani
author_facet Taha Jabir al-Alwani
author_sort Taha Jabir al-Alwani
title Reflections on the “Moderate Muslims” Debate
title_short Reflections on the “Moderate Muslims” Debate
title_full Reflections on the “Moderate Muslims” Debate
title_fullStr Reflections on the “Moderate Muslims” Debate
title_full_unstemmed Reflections on the “Moderate Muslims” Debate
title_sort reflections on the “moderate muslims” debate
publisher International Institute of Islamic Thought
publishDate 2005
url https://doaj.org/article/0c73e77fc8634d1280f6d4f54e3544f2
work_keys_str_mv AT tahajabiralalwani reflectionsonthemoderatemuslimsdebate
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