Silent Majority
… of moderate Muslims trumped by explosive minority. But Totten serves up some nuance and optimism, along with an Iraqi idyll that offers more cause for optimism:
My Contentions colleague Abe Greenwald takes a gloomy view of a new Gallup survey that shows 93 percent of the world’s Muslims are moderates. “We need to find out from one billion rational human beings why they largely refuse to stand up for humanity and dignity instead of cowering in the face of fascist thugs,” he wrote.
First of all, I’d like to agree with Abe’s point that even this sunny survey suggests we still have a serious problem. If seven percent of the world’s Muslims are radical, we’re talking about 91 million people.
…
I’m less inclined than Abe to give the remaining Muslims — aside from secular terror-supporters — too hard a time. I work in the Middle East, and I used to live there. I meet moderate Muslims every day who detest al Qaeda and their non-violent Wahhabi counterparts. I know they’re the overwhelming majority, and a significant number are hardly inert in the face of fascists.
Read on here. Meanwhile, Totten’s latest from Anbar is an IED hunt that becomes an amble across an Iraq peaceful, prospering, scratching to get by, dangerous. Don’t forget to support the independent journalism.
Topics: GWOT
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:19 am on Saturday, March 1, 2008
3 Responses to “Silent Majority”
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March 1st, 2008 at 12:39 pm
That’s encouraging, and there ought to be more reporting like that. Shame on mainstream journalism that there isn’t.
March 1st, 2008 at 8:47 pm
I’d like to see a similar survey of worldwide Imams and see if a similar percentage are as moderate as the general population. I suspect not.
The followers of the religion may be moderate in their attitudes, but what about the leaders they follow? Are they as moderate? Are the mainstream teachings of the various sects moderate in any way?
Not to make a direct comparison, but I’m sure the majority of people in medieval Europe were moderate compared to the Inquisition. I wouldn’t doubt that a poll would show that 93% were moderate in relation to what was considered radical at the time - but that didn’t stop the abuses in the name of the Church.
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:42 am
Most people are followers of those who have power over them. It is easy to feel powerless in the face of authority. Even we, who can vote for their representatives, regularly acquiesce all too easily to what the representatives do while in office. We regularly abdicate our sovereign liberty with little thought or voice given to even complain about its loss. How many here agree with McCain-Feingold, a law that overtly abuses the First Amendment. How many agree with the way our representatives abuse Eminent Domain by what amounts to theft of private property, not for any emergency or any rational need, but for the benefit of those who were refused purchase by legal owners, for a promise increase in revenues.