The Curse of Being a “Moderate Muslim”
Recently, I’ve been reading a book by Stephen Poole entitled ‘Unspeak’ which explains just how powerful words can be in shaping the minds of an entire society.
And it was whilst reading this book that I came across an old article by Daniel Pipes about ‘moderate Muslims’.
Now, the fact is that I used to believe the tripe that we need Muslims to be “moderate” but the more and more I thought about it, it became clear just how detrimental this term is.
By saying that you are a ‘moderate Muslim’ you are basically saying that you moderately follow the tenets of Islam.
The problem with this is, is that you are basically admitting (and thus, giving into the narrative that is spouted by Islamophobes) that there is something so inherently unmoderate in Islam that you need to exercise caution when it comes to being a Muslim.
The effect it has on the Muslim mind is so powerful, because the subtext is basically saying: “your religion is extreme, so you need to be moderate”.
Not only that, but it causes rifts between Muslims because the more that a Muslim gives into this narrative, the more likely they are to be an apologetic and end up hating their own people. They will begin to think “oh, it’s because of those extremist Muslims that us moderates have to suffer”.
What they don’t understand – and the fault of this lies squarely at the feet of our Muslim institutions and groups as they have the ability to counter such poisonous thoughts that are pushed into the Muslim mind – is that they begin to hate not only their people, but their faith as well.
When they begin to believe that there is something about Islam that means you must practice moderation (because otherwise you are at risk of becoming an extremist) is that they have, in essence, admitted that there is something wrong with Islam.
The power of the narrative that makes Muslims want to be seen as “moderates” is that it destroys their understanding of their faith and makes them think that Islam creates so many “evil” Muslims who take part in extremist acts using the faith’s name. It liquidates the chance of any Muslim seeing through the lies of this hate-filled narrative without having to lift a finger.
However, to those of us who do know and understand the game that is being played, know that it is not true that there is something inherently violent about Islam. No, the only thing about Islam that is inherent is that it is just.
But due to a lethargy of our Muslim institutions (who enjoy holding talks on menial aspects* of Islam) no Muslim group in UK is out there teaching Muslims a counter-propaganda narrative that Islam is not a violent religion, and that reaction of Muslims around the world is not because they have had years of hate from the Qur’an and the Muslim community. Rather, it is a reaction that is born out of anger and anguish due to the unethical foreign policy of so many Western countries.
But the curse of wanted to be a moderate goes even further. The result of this is that yonug Muslims become confused and hateful of Islam. They have no answers to, and do not know the countrer-propaganda narrative to the hate that is spewed about Muslims.
So, not only do you have the wider non-Muslim community hating Muslim, and not only do you have Muslims being taught to subliminally hate themselves, but you also have a new generation of Muslims who in their heart do not believe in Islam. Very few of the younger generation will explicitly say that they are no longer Muslim, as some will find it to be culturally unacceptable and will find it hard to answer to their parents, but they will only have Muslim names and nothing more about them will be Muslim. And that is how one wipes out an entire generation.
What is the solution then?
The solution is two-fold. Firstly, as individuals we need to educate ourselves and Muslims around us about the counter-propaganda narrative – and there is no other better place to learn this than MPACUK. Every study circle we are tackling such issues and relentlessly trying to wake up other Muslims, the more Muslims that are involved then the greater position we are all in to save our community from hating itself.
Secondly, hold local and national Muslim institutions to account to not countering this narrative. Remember, if we aren’t holding them to account then they will continue being inactive and let this propaganda narrative poison the mind of Muslims.
With all this hate being spread about Muslims and our people being forced to accept a narrative that makes us hates our community and our religion, you will never hear MPACUK say that we are moderates. We are Muslims and proud of it.
And if you think Muslims need to be moderates, then you’re the one with the extremism problem, not us.
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Source: MPACUK
Read more: http://www.mpacuk.org/story/211209/curse-being-moderate-muslim.html#ixzz0q74mLTqV
Category: Articles |
A thought provoking and well written article!
OK i absolutely salut your article ive been saying this for ages,ive seen the people who call themselves moderate,on TV they are apologetic and say that you dont have to practice everything owrd for word,silly ppl think to be called ‘moderate’ is a complement.You are euther practicinf fully,trying or not ptracticing.The westerners have to categories everything but we dont fit into their boxes so they can distinguish between who is likely to blow em up on or not.
Having said that ironically in an islamic discourse we are adviced to be of the middle way not too lax ,not too extreme(overdoing it) but just as our Prophet Kareem(saw) did which is why we have been told to hold tightly to the sunnah,i doudt they would call that moderate,so i belong in that non-moderate group and proudly!.
I rememeber a relative telling me to take it easy with the talks i attent that i watch i dont get brainwashed i thought What??? it sounded like something off panorama,I responded that i wasnt stupid and i would defidenlty be aware of anyone trying get me to dabble in terror and that i was fine,on the contrary talks i had attended were quick to condemn all that.But the older genration a somehwat removed from some of our experiences of re-discovering Islam and unlike what they come into contact with its not held by a couple os Somali men in Somali so its a bit of a greyarea where they have had no experience.
I also hate when muslims condemn the Niqab,many sisters struggle to miantain it because theyre parent scare them outta of it,bu i guess they are just worried as long as that is the only reason i suppose we have to be understanding.
Lets rememeber we never had these assumptions before they were brough up by the western media.
To be called a moderate by a westerner is a isult.However we are certainly supposed to take the middleway.