Moderate Muslim voice

YOU know what I find myself wondering about yet again? Where is the moderate Muslim voice? Where is the outcry and outrage from moderate Muslims? A lot of stuff has been happening lately. The flotilla, Helen Thomas, etc. Why is there no response?

When the mosques were under attack in Switzerland there was an outcry from the Jewish community in solidarity with the Muslims. Why no response and public condemnation at least on the Helen Thomas remarks? That was not political in its nature. It was hate speech. Pure and simple. But, nothing.

I don’t say this as an accusation, but rather as an invitation.

Are all Muslims really militants? If there is no voice loud enough out there to contradict that, why should I believe otherwise? If there truly is a moderate Muslim community, let its voice be heard, let its message be echoed.

I understand it is not simple. It is really tough to take a different path from your normative community and religion. Or do you claim militant Islam is not the norm? Really? How am I to know that? Only if you speak up! Otherwise, to be honest, it sure does seem like jihad is the spirit of the Koran, the way of all Muslims.

I feel an affinity with people who practice other religions. Even if we are taking totally different religious paths and have totally different beliefs and tenets to our faiths, there is something to struggling and trying to lead a religious life beyond what this physical world is, that is common.

We all pray.

We all have religious rituals.

We all connect to life from that religious place within our soul that yearns for G-dliness and tries to reach deep inside ourselves.

I may wholly disagree with a devout religious Muslim, but I can really respect a person who tries to live a religious, holy and peaceful life of worship, or any decent human being for that matter, religious or not.

Those of us who do live by a religion —we are seekers. We try to infuse our daily life with spirituality. So, what bothers me is, if moderate Muslims are out there, how come I don’t hear you?

Without your voice, I am left thinking that you agree with Sharia law, that you support the concept of dhimmitude and thus against Jews. And that you don’t embrace the Jewish state.

Without transparent introspection about painful, heinous acts committed by Muslim terrorists, how am I supposed to know who you are?

I know that Islam means peace, but if this is all there is to say and no action to back it up, frankly, it rings like a platitude.

IT is probably scary to make a public break with certain community policies that are a given and are set in place. Maybe you would feel like a traitor. Like you are selling out your people. In modern day Hebrew this is called a mashta”p. It is an acronym for meshatef pe’ulah, meaning cooperating with the other side. A collaborator.

You know what, though? If, in fact, you are peaceful, if in fact your religion does preach the moderate way, and you remain silent, then yes, you are in fact selling out your people because until you speak up and, yes, collaborate in a positive way, I can only have the wrong belief about  Islam and regard it as hateful and dangerous.

Or, is the harsh truth that there is no moderate Muslim voice heard out there because there is, in fact, no moderate Muslim voice? Are you secretly happy when Helen Thomas said what she said? Are you simply content to say you are moderate, yet secretly glad to let someone do the dirty work for you?

I understand using the term Muslim moderate is not simple and there is no such thing as a monolithic group. I am Jewish. My people are a mosaic of 12 tribes. There are always conflicting points of view. But are there certain fundamental values that band you together? Like being against hate speech and for peace?

I would like to see real debate, grass roots outrage, action and response from the Muslim community to a lot of the difficult, sometimes even poisonous stuff that is going on. Not just public relations to make us think you are moderate, but some meaningful change.

If you are in fact out there, it must be painful to be judged by the acts of the evil. I am not saying it is easy to be in your position. But it also shouldn’t be that hard to come out against evil. I want concrete policy changes. I want to know your moderate way.

IN Judaism, the moderate way is considered by Maimonides to be the ideal. It is referred to as shvil ha-zahav, the golden mean. So, if you Muslim moderates are out there, I mean this truly as an invitation for us all to meet on the path of the shvil ha-zahav.

I hope that time will come, so that my sole experience and association with Islam until now — of hate, jihad, silence in the face of wrongs — will change and there will be hope.