Lee Kuan Yew (newshub)
Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew notes that while radical Muslims operate in terror groups worldwide, "at the moment, the moderate Muslims are keeping out of sight." From The Star, with thanks to Nicolei:
IN an interview with the BBC’s East Asia Today programme, broadcast last night, Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew addressed the issue of terrorism and spoke on the role of moderates within the Muslim community.Speaking of his hopes and fears of the struggle to come, he said that if it becomes a clash or fight against Muslims, then, as he put it, “it’s a very stupid way to conduct this battle”.
“The problems are caused by an errant heretical group that wants to use the Muslim religion to turn it into a jihad, or a holy struggle, against the West,” Lee said during the interview, which took place at the Istana last Wednesday.
“Their objectives, well if you read Osama bin Laden – I don’t read him in the Arabic but I’ve read interpretations of what specialists think ... of what he means by what he’s said – it’s really to get the Americans and the West out of the Middle East, control the oil and control the world.
“But the crux of the battle really, the core battle, is between moderate and extreme Muslims.
“At the moment, the moderate Muslims are keeping out of sight.”
So it has been the extreme Muslims against the Americans, the Israelis and the West, and all those who support the Americans, including Singapore, said Lee.
“But if Madrid, 9/11, Bali and so on keep going on and the moderates in the Muslim world keep silent, either condone or duck the issue, then there is a danger that the West may begin to feel, that really, there are no champions to counter these terrorists,” he said, referring to recent and previous acts of terrorism.
“That would become a very dangerous problem.”
Asked by the interviewer if he were to mean it was the moderates in the Islamic world, rather than the war against terror, that were exacerbating the situation, Lee replied “no”.
He explained it thus: “I am saying that moderates in the Muslim world, by not being able to take a stand and take the lead and start the argument with the extremists in the mosques, in the madrasah, they are ducking the issue and allowing the extremists to hijack, not just Islam, but the whole of the Muslim community.”
Indeed, moderate Muslims have yet to demonstrate to their fellow Muslims that the radicals have not "highjacked" the religion.
As for whether Lee thought the war against terror could widen the gulf between Islam and the West, he acknowledged there was that danger.However, it was not necessarily inevitable – provided the Muslim moderates take a stand, he added.
Lee said: “Let’s take 9/11 or Madrid. If nobody except Europeans and Americans and those who are already committed condemn this – I mean if all Muslim countries stay silent, or Muslim groups stay silent – then there is the danger that the Europeans and Americans may come to the conclusion, ‘Look, there’s really nobody on the other side, that’s standing up against this evil.'
“I think that would be bad. I believe the vast majority have no interest in this terrorism. It is not going to win them the battle and they must know it.
“The question is: Who makes a stand? President Mubarak of Egypt, King Abdullah of Jordan, President Bouteflika of Algeria, President Musharraf of Pakistan?
The whole world is waiting for the appearance of this moderate Islam.
There never was, is or will be a moderate Islam. If a moderate thing emerges out of Islam, it will just be a 'me too' Arab version of that which came before.
I, for one, just cannot see the Arab/Bedouin shame/honor culture ever producing something that is not hateful towards the rest of the world. This is because the West has proven itself to be flexible, creative, self-critical, capable of self-improvement and hence vastly superior to Islamic 'culture', which is merely one giant boil of impossibly deep self-loathing, and the societies that the Arab infection spreads around the world.
Budd may be right. In either case, silence condones the actions of the killers and acceptance of their behavior. Silence allows these people to operate freely, often with you knowledge, in your communities before they strike out against their victims. This makes you complicit before, and if you help them again, after the fact.
Islam now has no chance in the Unitrd States if Muslims don't stand up for America against her enemes. Silence will only more greatly inflame the other population as they will believe that American Muslims are with the bombers at least in their hearts.
The truth is that no thinking American will ever again trust the surface benevolence of an "religion" that hopes to gain advantage against us in order to create the Mother of All Colonies, the Caliphate.
Budd:
Christianity in the West was infected with the same kind of fanaticism as is evidenced by radical Islamism today. Look back in history to the Albigensian and Cathar wars, the Reformation that brought about the Thirty Year Wars which devastated much of Western Europe, etc But the West worked this fanatical element out of its system, in large measure by the creation of the USA with its Constitution and separation of church and state.
Islam will need to undergo its own Reformation and that is up to the moderates. People cannot help being born into their culture. They absorb the values of their culture with their mother's milk. These values are rarely questioned, and if and when they are, this is usually a wrenching and violent event. I would bet that most people in the Islamic world are like everybody else, with the same basic hopes and aspirations. Unfortunately, being born into the Arab Muslim world immediately saddles the individual with some heavy baggage.
It won't be easy to change that. It will take great effort, sacrifice and time. But that is what moderate muslims will need to commit to. This will be such a large and profound commitment that most moderates will want to put this off until they absolutely have to take a stand. On some level they know just how bloody it might get for them personally.Most moderate muslims may well be hoping for the situation to just ease up on its own.That's human nature. But it won't and they will have to take a stand.
What the Islamic world needs today is a prgressive leader with the stature of Saladdin to move it into the 21st century. Right now Osama Bin Laden is laying claim as the heir to Saladdin and he wants to lead the Islamic world back into the dark ages, and the rest of the world with it.
These terrorists ned to be hunted down and exterminated as the sewer rats that they are. Sheik Yassin got what he deserved. No mercy for terrorists, but an open hand to the moderate muslims who are seeking the higher road,
Mike H
"Look back in history to the Albigensian and Cathar wars, the Reformation that brought about the Thirty Year Wars which devastated much of Western Europe, etc."
Let's look at the Albigensian and Cathar wars. They violate the concept of a "just war" from a Biblical perspective. Plonk.
The Reformation reestablished the freedom of soul necessary for any true inquiry or conversion. It certainly did not lay the ground of a church separated from the state in the sense of the state being more powerful than the church. There IS NO "separation of church and state" found anywhere in the founding documents of the United States! Double-plonk.
I really wish people would do their homework before they post here, sometimes!
I agree with Tarage. Christianity has the benefit of having a founder (Christ) who did NOT EVER advocate the killing of ANYONE. You can't say that about Big Mo. The problem is that Islam, at its very core, is fundamentally flawed. The only thing that can save it is for big Mo to come back from the dead, tell all the Muslims he got it wrong, and that Jews are humans too, Christians aren't cursed, and its a bad idea to beat your wife.
The problem is NOT with the interpretation of Islam, it is Islam itself. Christianity has had a problem with scripture interpretation in the past, and in some areas still does. But any literate person can read the words of Jesus and see that.
Mike, I think you've got it. Moderate Muslims must take a stand....but it is highly unlikely they will. The mere fact that they believe in the Qur'an makes it impossible for them to reject actions which to us are terrorist, but to them represent faithful compliance with the teachings of Muhammad, the Quran and the Hadith. Further, for a moderate Muslim to take such a stand would be considered blasphemy, punishable by death. At least this is how I see it.
"Christianity has had a problem with scripture interpretation in the past, and in some areas still does.", says ryan, I think about "the passion" and more about "still does".
I cant imagine that the clue about fighting "jihad" can be "muslims are jerks and christians just great" (though "christian" is actually my first name ;))
So why be THAT harsh against mike trying to be fair to e.g. murdered iranian intellectuals and students that were fighting for a moderat islam and gave their lives while we are just talkin?
Dont be christian radicals!
My point was that Islam is at its core a projection of Arab shame/honor culture. Honor killings (especially of women) still occur. My theory is that the inter-tribal fighting caused by the lack of resources was turned outward against the rest of the world. I further think that the lack of imagination is a direct result of the low level of stimulation that a desert environment provides. They disdain images because they have nothing to see. These are inferior people who have taken up a belief system that manages to inflate their pitiful egos by encouraging a hatred of the other, and the duty to destroy the other. Islam is full of verses that say that this life is meaningless, everything is in Allah's hands, and dying fighting for Allah is the highest calling.
The above is why Muslims just cannot, for the most part, engage in any kind of debate or discussion. They get hysterical is anything is said about the possibility that Islam is the work of man, not god. They cling to the literalism because that is all that they have.
Remember, the religion comes from the culture, not the other way around
To little to late; the war has started.
Moderate Muslims are caught between the proverbial rock and hard place. They fear speaking out against violent jihad because they know that violent jihad is canonical. Only after tremendous suffering can they come around. Iraq to some degree and Iran to a greater degree illustrate this. Ironically, Iraq may not have suffered enough under Saddam & Co.
OTOH, should violent jihadists get their hands on WMD's, especially nukes, Belmont Club #3 looms exitentially threatening moderate and violent alike. Secular government as keeper of freedom in Iraq is problematical at best. In Iran, once the dead hands of the Mullahs are removed, secular government is a fairly good prospect.
Only if Bush can inject a fatal dose of freedom into Islam soon enough can a reform approach work. Will this succeed? We'll have a fairly good idea in about three years.