The Search of the Moderate Muslim.

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We often hear that Islam is a religion of peace, that the terrorists are extremists and that we should work with the moderate Muslims to build a more peaceful world. The question is however, where are they and who are these moderate Muslims? Let us find one moderate Muslim, peer into his mind and see what he thinks and what his outlook of the world is.

Who is better for this than Doctor Mahathir, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, who stepped down from the office last October? Prime Minister Mahathir tried to create a modern Islamic country. He believed that Muslims should not just read religious books but also go after science, mathematics and technology and build modern countries. He was hailed as a moderate Muslim and probably would make a perfect choice for us as the specimen.

His last political performance was when he chaired a summit of the leaders of all Isamic countries OIC. In his speech, Mahathir used the word "enemy" and "enemies of Islam" 17 times.

He talked about how in the early days of Islam “Allah helped the Muslims to defeat their enemies and to create a great and powerful Muslim civilization” and stated that Muslims today have more wealth (oil) and are more numerous than the early believers and hence they can defeat their detractors and enemies.

To incite his audience, he played the Muslim’s favorite card –the victimization card. And kept repeating, “We are all Muslims. We are all oppressed. We are all being humiliated.”

He groaned, “They will attack and kill us, invade our lands, bring down our Governments”.

He acknowledged that the early Muslims built a great civilization by studying the works of the Greeks and other scholars before Islam and then boastfully added that the "Europeans had to kneel at the feet of Muslim scholars in order to access their own scholastic heritage."

Mahathir blamed the “western democratic system” for undermining the unity of the Ummah (The entire Muslim population), even though in reality, the division of the Ummah is due to the incompatibly of Islam with democracy. Muslim rulers often use the Sharia (Islamic law) to suppress the will of the majority.

He concluded that this weakness of Muslims allowed the Europeans to excise Muslim land and create the state of Israel for the Jews.

Then he urged his colleagues to amass “guns and rockets, bombs and warplanes, tanks and warships”. He told them that they should encourage learning of science and mathematics and modernize, so that the "Ummah can produce its own weapons and not rely on its detractors and enemies for what it needs most.”

So that is what the Muslims need most. Not food, not medicine, not drinking water and good sanitation, not democracy, not freedom of speech, not respect of their human rights, not equality for their women; but “guns and rockets, bombs and warplanes, tanks and warships". This is what the Muslims need most.

Mahathir condemned those who interpret the Quran superficially and do not understand the importance of the above.

Then Mahathir comforted the Muslims by saying “1.3 billion Muslims cannot be defeated by a few million Jews. There must be a way. And we can only find a way if we stop to think, to assess our weaknesses and our strength, to plan, to strategize and then to counter attack. As Muslims we must seek guidance from the Al-Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet. Surely the 23 years’ struggle of the Prophet can provide us with some guidance as to what we can and should do.”

Mahathir is absolutely right. Al Quran and the Sunnah contain the guideline for the Muslims to strategize and then to attack. Al Quran tells Muslims to hate the unbelievers. It divides the world into two halves, the house of war and the house of Islam. It teaches them that the infidels are fuels for hell, that Muslims should wage war against them in the house of war and kill them wherever they find them and cut their throat from above their necks.

Of course Mahathir’s audience were all Muslims. That is why he did not try to sweeten his talk by sugarcoating it. This is not what we hear from the Muslim apologists in the West who tell us that Islam is a religion of peace and the Quran is a message of love.

Mahathir even spelled out the strategy that Muslims should follow to win this war against their "detractors and enemies". He reminded them of the Hudaibiyah treaty. In Hudaybiyah, the Prophet Muhammad reluctantly signed an accord that was less than what he and his companions had bargained for. In fact it was a retreat. However, he waited a few more years and after his army was stronger, he broke the treaty and invaded again.

By reminding the Muslims of Hudaibiyah, Dr. Mahathir hinted that Muslims should make a “strategic retreat”, “calmly assess the situation, build more weapons, devise a plan, a strategy that can win us final victory” and then strike en mass and conjointly at the enemies of Islam.

Muhathir named the Jews and all those who defend their right to live as the decorators and enemies. He said, “Today the Jews rule this world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them.”

This “others” are of course the Americans, the Europeans and anyone who defends the Jews’ right to live and prevent the Muslims from drowning them in the sea.

Dr. Mahathir however, perhaps remembering the support of few friends of Islamists such as Jacques Chirac, the BBC, the liberals and the leftists and their rampant opposition to the USA in its war against terrorism acknowledged that “not all non-Muslims are against us. Some are welldisposed towards us. Some even see our enemies as their enemies.”

This speech delivered by a moderate Muslim and greeted with standing ovation by the leaders, the kings and the presidents of the entire Islamic world is significant because it sheds light into the reality of Islam. It makes us see the world through the eyes of the Muslims, not the extremists and the terrorists but the moderate ones, the ones who are our allies, "friends" and the recipients of our aids.

Islam is a divided house. Muslims fight and kill each other constantly for interpreting the Quran in different ways. However all the Muslims are united in one thing and that is their hatred of the Jews and the West.

Dr. Mahathir while emphasizing on the unity of the Ummah acknowledged that a total unity would be impossible however he suggested, “all the Muslim countries can close ranks and have a common stand if not on all issues, at least on some major ones, such as on Palestine".

Why should Palestine be important to Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh or Pakistan? Why shouldn’t the plight of the Shiites in Pakistan or the Sunnis in Iran be the major point of concern for Muslims and their leaders? Why is there not even a mention of the slave trade of millions of Christians in Sudan conducted by the Arab Muslims? Why this much ado about Palestine? The answer is that the perceived occupiers of Palestine are Jews; the ones who, as Muhammad said are descendents of apes and pigs. This is a major humiliation for Muslims. Even a Muslim living in the UK or USA, enjoying all the benefits of the free world and who has no ties with Palestine can feel oppressed because of this.

After peering into the mind of a moderate Muslim the question that begs an answer is: what is the difference between a moderate Muslim and a terrorist Muslim? As a former Muslim myself, my long and careful analysis leads me to the conclusion that the only difference is the latter wants to start the Jihad against the infidels now while the former thinks it is better to wait until the Muslims are strong and then attack.

The difference is in the form not in substance. Their only disagreement is when and how the Jihad against the infields should take place. Otherwise all the Muslims, whether moderate or extremists believe in the same book. That book calls for waging war against the non-Muslims until they are subdued and humiliated. The Quran teaches:

9:29, Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.