Is there a Moderate Islam?

My first inclination is there may be some moderates that are Mohammedans, however the tenets and express actions of the Quran and Mohammedan ideology is violent in it execution of their tenets of faith. I once read the only differance between a so-called moderate Mohammedan and a radical Islamofascist is in the time frame of expectations.

The moderate may not believe that the Mohammedan end game is immanent. Their daily lives are wrapped in there expectations. There may exist a semblance of respect and honor and patience to the Kafir (infidel), yet sometime in the distant future the Kafir's lot in life will be damnation and retribution.

The radical Islamofascist lives in a realm of immediate expectations and their daily lives are wrapped up in those expectations of immediacy. Hence the execution of persecution, death and destruction. The moderate moderately may oppose the execution of Islamofascist actions yet most inwardly sympathize with their insanity.

Here is an excerpt from IGST on this matter:
-----------------------------------

I further believe that even moderates actively sympathize with the extremists. Minor examples here, here, and here. [*The first two links may not work, but with a little address bar editing will take you to the blog]

Even when that is not the case, moderates who do oppose the fanatics are terribly vulnerable to assassination and beatings. The recently published Manfesto has undoubtedly dramatically increased the danger to those brave souls who signed it. Ayaan Hirsi Ali already must sleep at Dutch military bases and prisons to keep from being killed like Theo van Gogh.

Where were the expressions of outrage from Muslims over that act of naked slaughter? Answer: there was none.

It does not increase my respect for Islam that there is so much doctrinal support for the fanatics who threaten to name any person who deviates slightly from the impenetrable, overly rigid schemes of interpretation in Islamic doctrine a blasphemer, apostate, or polytheist. I do not know whether Wahhabism is an aberrant doctrine in your eyes but it certainly seems to be ubiquitous and the primus inter pares of doctrines, if not the regnant doctrine, thanks to the egregious Saudi financing of its propagation around the world.

Even so, all schools of interpretation of jurisprudence, ancient or not so ancient, to my knowledge, are adamant that the penalty for apostasy is death. I cannot adequately express my contempt for this evil doctrine that is so wildly inconsistent with concepts of human rights as they have developed in the West in the last 1,000 years. Many non Western nations have approved of the concept of human rights as expressed in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights so this concept is not supported only by parochial Westerners.The sharia also places all powers in the hands of so-called clerics. (I call them "so-called clerics" because they so often seem to act like politicians instead of men of religion. Imam Moktada al-Sadr should more accurately be Brigadier Moktada al-Sadr.) What educated person can look upon the history of theocracy in the world and say it should not be relegated to the proverbial dustbin of history? Yet it is immutably integral to the sharia this very second. Integral? It is a bedrock principle.I am mindful, too, as I have said in several places in this blog, of the contempt that the Koran and other Muslim doctrinal sources express for kuffar. I am also aware of the web site of His Eminence Grand Ayatullah al-Sayyid Ali al-Hussani al-Sistani in Iraq, which site clearly states that I, as a kafir, am no better than excrement. Similarly, the elegant web site of Witness Pioneer publishes nonsense such as:

Every Muslim personally believes and you too must be surely believing alike, [that] a Muslim's rank is higher than of a Kafir. Source.

I refuse to ignore such clear expressions of contempt from important religious leaders. Nowhere have I ever read of any Muslim who has renounced the concepts of kuffar as najis, kuffar as haram, kuffar as inferiors to Muslims, or kuffars as being unworthy of friendship with Muslims (Koran, 3:28). Why? Because this is state of the art Islamic doctrine! And nothing more than a variant of the fundamental Islamic concept of the dhimmi.

Furthermore, the clearly expressed intention of Muslim leaders that Islam shall rule the world and/or kill all the Jews does little to inspire respect. The world saw at least two such madmen in the last century. That is more than enough for the next 1,000 years!

The recent display of "outrage" over the Danish cartoons filled me only with contempt for the foolish or evil people who killed and burned in the process. This was 100% a creation of Muslim leaders. Over nothing. Yes, nothing compared to the offenses of Islam, the conquest, the killing, the plunder, and, now, the raising of terror to an art form.

Why would I not have a negative attitude toward Islam?

Islam must change radically and religious leaders relegated to a suitable role not involving direct participation in either the courts, the legislature, or the executive of any country. Sadly, this is an impossible precondition for the advancement of Muslim countries. Perhaps Asian Islam will find a way out of the thicket of fanaticism, though recent anti-Buddhist killings in Thailand, recent anti-Christian killings in Indonesia, and the long-standing insurrection of the Moros in the Philippines are not causes for optimism.

People who want to live life as though nothing at all has happened since the seventh century are simply deranged and the savagery they employ in the service of their efforts to do so will be resisted to the end. Were it not for oil revenue, such mad schemes would die of starvation.

When Muslims are willing to stop mixing politics with religion I will be happy to return to a more benign view of Islam. Any non Muslim who still believes Islam is benign as it currently operates in the world is a fool or a traitor to his own kind.