’Moderate’ vs ’Severe’ Muslims

The Western world divides the muslim population into either ‘moderate’ or ‘extremist’ muslims. The general impression in the West is that the civilized world can deal with ‘moderate’ muslims so they need to be encouraged and supported as opposed to the savage fundamentalists and extremists. This approach has some fundamental flaws and I think is bound to fail.

The Western use of the word ‘moderate’ is based on the comparison between mild, moderate and severe. This is not mere semantics but the implication here is that ‘moderate’ muslims do not follow Islam in its ‘severe’ or pure form and have rather incorporated many ‘modernized’ or ‘Western’ concepts-hence these people are more acceptable. On the other hand, ‘extremist’ muslims according to the Western view, follow Islam in the ‘severe’ or pure form and have not incorporated the modern, Western or scientific concepts- hence they are potentially dangerous to the West.

The underlying Western concept is that ‘pure’ Islam in its complete form without Western influences is a problem. The reason that the West will not be able to win muslim hearts and minds with this approach is that it attacks the religion of Islam. Muslims sooner or later realize this Western vision and of course they cannot imagine being traitors to their religion. They do not want to be ‘half muslims’ or the so called ‘moderate muslims of the West’ so they turn into hardliners which they think is the opposite of the ‘moderate’ vision of Islam. Western efforts to apparently make them ‘semi-muslims’ just fuel their conviction to be ‘pure’ muslims.

Instead of focusing on encouragement of ‘moderate’ or ‘semi-pure’ muslims, the Western world should encourage and support muslims to find the true vision of Islam-just like they support other scientific initiatives all over the world. The fact which the Western world is yet to accept is that Islam is not a hostile or dangerous religion. It has been deformed by the uneducated leadership and masses over the past few centuries and hence we see an aggressive, confrontational side now. True spirit of Islam is that of peace, tolerance and that of civic responsibility. It actively stimulates scientific research and is very progressive. I think that the way for the West to deal with the muslim world is to support the muslims in the in depth study of Islam. They need to help the muslims in finding themselves. This should be done both in the West by supporting Islamic think tanks like Zaytuna Institute in US and also by scholarships for studying Islam in the muslim countries themselves. Currently Islamic study is not financially feasible for the youth but if there is a market for this skill, then I am sure true spirit of Islam will come out in the society. I think this investment will lead to long term harmony and peace between Islamic and Western civilizations. The current Western policy of dividing muslims into ‘moderate’ or ‘non-pure’ and ‘fundamentalist’ or ‘pure’ muslims is counterproductive and is never going to work.