Sunday, February 14, 2010

Tap-Dancing Around Supremacism

Europe's favourite slippery Salafist/Islamic intellectual Tariq Ramadan goes into a whole song and dance about "moderate" Islam and how he (the grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood) is just the dude to help define it for the receptive Continentals:
...There exists a strictly religious debate, couched in the language of Islamic jurisprudence and the fundamentals of faith, over the notion of moderation. If this is grasped - as it must be - it becomes possible to approach the more relevant political questions with far less prejudice and naivety. We should never forget that religious moderation, however it is defined, is perfectly compatible with a radical, non-violent, democratic political stance that rejects all forms of domination, exploitation and oppression.
If you say so, Tariq. If you'll pardon the effrontery, though (it's the unreconstructed kafir in me speaking--what's to be done with that saucy minx?) I have a definition of "moderation" that is far more succinct albeit a tad less, ahem, "nuanced" than yours. It's as follows: a "moderate" Muslim is one who pays no heed to the statement "jihad is the way; sharia is the goal."

See, easy-peasy.

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