Andy McCarthy offers some useful observations:
. . . The problem for Esposito, Voll and other self-styled moderates is that they know they can't say, "At a time when Islam is under siege from Muslim heretics." The Muslims in question are adherents of an extreme form of Islam. They are not heterodox. They simply don't buy the moderate mush that the Qur'an and the Hadith do not mean what they say, or that Muslims are at liberty to ignore them.
We keep looking past this at our peril. Does anyone ever notice that the Muslims we consider our allies are either former Muslims (see, e.g., Ibn Warraq), secular Muslims (people who maintain a cultural affinity to Islam but don't care much about doctrine), or well-meaning reformer Muslims who either forthrightly acknowledge that Islam must be changed fundamentally (see, e.g., Irshad Manji) or rationalize that
Islamic scripture does not have to be taken literally and that the bellicose passages are somehow limited to the circumstances of the Seventh Century (rationalizations that are not very compelling no matter how much we want to believe them)? No doubt these groups make up hundreds of millions of people; but they have little influence with extremists — who themselves make up not a fringe but, at the very least, tens of millions of people.
A summation by the courageous former Muslim, Ayan Hirsi Ali, "My View of Islam (on holy war, apostasy and the rights of women)," should be required reading on this topic. (Esposito and Voll would go in her fifth category.) It would be a much better use of our time than listening to blather about how a teeny-tiny group of terrorists has hijacked a noble religion of peace. In the interim, the problem is not going away: What Islamic extremists are extreme about is Islam.
Me: I agree with McCarthy, the article by Ayan Hirsi Ali should be required reading. Following is an excerpt in which she lists five types of Muslims:
The first group includes those Muslims who leave the faith because they cannot reconcile it with their conscience or with modernity. This group is important for the evolution of the Islamic world because they ask the urgent and critical questions believers usually avoid. Ex-Muslims living in the west are just beginning to find their voice and to take advantage of the spiritual and social freedoms available to them.
The second group is comprised of genuine Muslim reformers, such as Irshad Manji, who acknowledge the theological out-datedness of the Koranic commands and the immorality of the prophet. They tend to emphasize the early chapters in the Koran urging goodness, generosity and spirituality. They argue that the latter chapters wherein Islam is politicized and the concepts of sharia, jihad and martyrdom are introduced should be read in the context in which they were written, some 1,400 years ago.
The third group is made up of those Muslims who support the gradual perpetuation and domination of Islam throughout the world. They use the freedoms offered in democracy to undermine social modernity and, though initially opposed to the use of violence, foresee that once the number of believers reaches a critical mass the last remnants of unbelievers may then be dealt with in violence, and sharia law may be universally implemented. Ayatollah Khomeini used this method successfully in Iran. Erdogan of Turkey is following in his footsteps. Tariq Ramadan, deeply rooted in his Muslim Brotherhood heritage, is devoted to such a program among European Muslims.
The fourth group is the most obvious and immediately threatening. In this group we find a growing number of hard-line Muslims who have defined martyrdom as their only goal. This is an army of young men whipped into a frenzy of suicidal violence by power hungry clergy. These clergy have public platforms and work with impunity from institutions untouched and often funded by national authorities.
The fifth group is largely ineffective and only threatening in their refusal to acknowledge the truth. Here we find the elite clergy who make a show of trying to reconcile Islam with modernity. They are motivated by self-preservation and have no interest in true reform. They take selective passages from the holy books to make a case for a peaceful Islam, ignoring the many passages inciting violence, such as those verses which command the death of apostates.
It is through the first two of these five groups that progress and reform will come. As for the rest, the western world would be wise to recognize the realities of Islam, a religion laid down in writing over a millennium ago with violence and oppression at its heart.