The moderate Muslims

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We often hear and read about the "moderate Muslims". That phrase is usually coupled with the term "majority" as in "the majority of Muslims are moderate Muslims". This has always managed to confuse and irritate me because I can't grasp the idea of a "moderate Muslim". What does that mean exactly? Do moderate Muslims ignore Sharia Law? Do moderate Muslims refrain from using whippings, beheadings, stoning to death and other unsavory forms of punishment associated with Sharia Law? Well that seems to be the conclusion after reading the story about how Malaysian authorities have imposed caning on three women who had extra-marital sex.
No mention of what punishment was meted out to the men involved. Can we assume that Sharia Law ( and its brutal forms of punishment) only applies to women? As in the case where a woman is raped, then she is unclean and dishonors her family so she is killed whilst the rapists get a slap on the wrist.
I once found a video on the net of a boy having his hand driven over by a truck as punishment for stealing. Don't bother looking for that video because net censorship exists (even though we might think it doesn't with all the pornography that is rampant) and that censorship is to protect the sensitivites of the Muslims. Specifically the Sharia Law imposed by Muslims who are not of a moderate disposition.
"This reflects the delicate balancing act that the Government in Kuala Lumpur has to perform," said Bradley Allan, director of the Hong Kong-based security company Allan & Associates.

"On the one hand there is its international reputation as a moderate Muslim state, a multiethnic community living in harmony, and, at the same time, balancing the more conservative Islamic elements who would like to see Malaysia move closer to more conservative Islamic values." 

"recent weeks churches and Silkh temples have been firebombed and vandalised and mosques have been desecrated with pigs’ heads as the Government pursues legal avenues to ban non-Muslims from using the word "Allah"

Disputes in recent years have also involved the demolition of Hindu temples illegally built on state land. Malay-language Bibles have been seized, Muslims have been banned from rock concerts and last year Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, a 32-year-old mother of two, was sentenced to caning for drinking beer."

That incident is food for thought because Malaysia has a majority Muslim population so how can we justify violence against other religions when Muslims are clearly not under any threat or any form of religious discrimination. Remember that this is the usual excuse used by Muslims to justify their violent behavior?


In Australia a group of Muslims have been jailed for plotting mass murder against Australians in retaliation for crimes against their "brothers" in Afghanistan.
In Pakistan Muslims continue to blow up other Muslims and let's not forget the Muslims killing their brothers in Iraq.
There are no international outcries of outrage that I can hear, can YOU hear any outrage?
Which brings me to the next item of confusion, why so much outrage against the Mossad assassinating a known terrorist leader in Dubai? Was this known terrorist leader perhaps a moderate Muslim? Or is it the fact that Dubai is known as a moderate Muslim country and it refuses to be associated with any plot to kill a know terrorist leader. By their public outrage, Dubai is sending a message to other "moderate" Muslims that they thoroughly disapprove of such actions. Of course Dubai doesn't have any qualms about terrorists passing through their country, after all  they are "moderate" Muslims.

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• 3 women caned in Malaysia for adultery (cnn.com)
• Three Malaysian women caned for sex outside marriage (guardian.co.uk)
• Malaysia canes women for having sex out of wedlock (msnbc.msn.com)
• Malaysia Court Canes Three Women (online.wsj.com)
• World Briefing | Asia: Malaysia: 3 Women Receive Canings (nytimes.com)
• 3 Muslim Malaysia women caned for extramarital sex (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Malaysia women flogged over sex (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Malaysian Women Caned for Adultery [Canings] (gawker.com)
• An outbreak of honor killings in America (michellemalkin.com)