What Is Moderate Islam?

Each year, Islamists carry out terrorist attacks, almost all involving noncombatants and innocents. Estimates of how many Muslims could be considered followers of radical Islam vary widely, and there are few guides to help distinguish moderates from radicals. Observers often sit at the extremes, either seeing all Muslims as open or closeted jihadis or recoiling from any attempt to link Islam with international terror. Both positions are overly simplistic, and the lack of rational principles to absolve the innocent and identify the accomplices of terror has led to governments and individuals mistakenly accepting jihadis and their enablers as moderate. What is Moderate Islam? brings together an array of scholars to provide this missing insight. This wide-ranging collection examines the relationship among Islam, civil society, and the state. The contributors—Muslims and non-Muslims—investigate how radical Islamists can be distinguished from moderate Muslims, analyze the potential for moderate Islamic governance, and challenge monolithic conceptions of Islam.

“Richard L. Benkin has put forth a solid collection of essays on one of the most critical topics of the day—distinguishing between moderate Muslims and Islamists. With the growing threat of Islamist groups in the Middle East and their affiliates in the West, the issue of identifying moderates necessitates a clear and guided answer, which is detailed throughout these essays. This book is a must read for anyone seeking to understand the complexities and nuances of the Muslim world at large. a review.”
— Asaf Romirowsky, Middle East Forum
“Readers should expect to find quite disturbing yet insightful material, presented from various insider perspectives, often in the words of people with direct experience of violence.”
— South Asia Research
“This is anIs Islam at its core ‘moderate’ or ‘radical’? Can the ‘moderates’ ultimately win out over the ‘extremists’ in a battle for the soul of Islam? How does ‘radical Islam’ gain a foothold in Muslim communities that have lived in peace with their non-Muslim neighbors? In this eye-opening book, Richard L. Benkin and an array of South Asian Muslim scholars confront these questions and more. The emphasis on Pakistan and Bangladesh creates a fascinating paradigm with numerous applications to study of the larger Islamic world. Essential reading for all those—especially policymakers—who are baffled as to how and why Islam’s jihad imperative has made, after a long period of relative (but not absolute) quiescence, such an unexpected and spectacular reappearance in the modern world.other quote.”
— Robert Spencer, Jihad Watch

Contributors:

  • Umar Daud Khattak

  • Sunil Kukreja

  • Daniel Pipes

  • Amitabh Tripathi

  • Kulbhushan Warikoo

  • Navras Jaat Aafreedi

  • Aziz Baloch

  • Meerain Baloch

  • Richard L. Benkin

  • Naseer Dashti

  • Anonymous Pashtun Woman