The Egyptian journalist Rim Azmi speaks out against Muslim reformers. “Egyptian Journalist on Muslim Liberals in the West: ‘Muslims in Name, Apostates in Fact,'” from MEMRI:
“They aren’t Westerners and they have not attained this honor in the eyes of the West, however, the West embraced them, not out of love for them, but rather in order to denigrate Islam. The West found in them that which they have long sought, because they were brought up in the land of Islam and they fully understand how to hurt its people. Since these people found no rest in their own countries, the West welcomed them, opening their arms to them so that they could continue to rain poison arrows down on the true faith [i.e., Islam].
“If we look carefully, we can distinguish these people’s different levels on the scale of rebellion. Some of them openly scoff at the Noble Koran; some demand that the Koran be revised; and there are others who get mixed up between worn-out [folk] habits and customs of the Muslims, and the fundamental principles of religion.
“You encounter a long list of those who call themselves Islamic thinkers. These people put themselves above the divine message, and their arrogance deludes them into thinking that they can act as equals with the overpowering miracle of the Koran. Thus, they strongly demand a rereading of the Koran, or what is an even greater crime, they demand that one listen to those who offer a new allegorical interpretation of the religious text….
“Their purpose is to invent a version of Islam in accordance with the latest fashions, which will be consistent with the rhythm of contemporary Western civilization.
Several years ago in Islam Unveiled I wrote that “the problem is that for all its schisms, sects, and multiplicity of voices, Islam’s violent elements are rooted in its core texts. That makes it extremely unlikely that the voices of moderation will ultimately silence the militants — because the militants will always be able to make the case that they are standing for the true expression of the faith.”
Rim Azmi here gives us yet another example of this phenomenon. As I pointed out in Islam Unveiled, to the jihadists, moderates are just hypocrites or apostates — and they are able to use the Qur’an and Sunnah to convince other Muslims that this is so.
This is the great challenge that moderate Muslims face. Yet when I have pointed this out to some leading moderates and asked them how they intend to answer it, all I have gotten is abuse — or silence. This casts into doubt the efficacy of their whole enterprise.
Azmi continues with an enemies list:
“Then we come to another degree of arrogance. Their champion needs no introduction; he is Salman Rushdie, who in 1989 wrote his revolting novel, The Satanic Verses. And following an Iranian fatwa which called for his killing, he began moving secretly in European countries while arrogantly scoffing at the idea of the Koran being revealed to the Prophet Muhammad.
“And there is also the Somali woman who was behind the killing of the Dutch director [Van Gogh] whose story we followed at the end of 2004. She is a conservative member of the Dutch parliament of Somali origin named Ayaan Hirshi Ali, and the author of the novel Submission, from which her late friend, the Dutch director Theo Van Gogh, derived the film which offends both Islam and Muslims and which angered the Muslims. A second part of the movie [was planned], if not for the fact that he was killed by a 26-year-old Moroccan immigrant.
“What occurred in Holland occurred also in a neighboring country which shares the same culture, namely Belgium, when a member of the parliament from Antwerp by the name of Mimount Bousakla began seeking publicity by exploiting the atmosphere of Islamophobia.
“Mimount, who complains to the Dutch [ sic, should be Belgian] police that she is being threatened, is playing the same game at which others before her excelled, namely, using insolence [against Islam] in order to gain fame at the expense of Islam, and then rushing to portray herself as a victim of narrow-minded people, having received some threats against her life.”
Yes, of course. There are no narrow-minded people among European Muslims. To think there are would be “Islamophobia.”