Who is - and who is not - a "Moderate Muslim"

Bret Stephens in the Wall Street Journal (Our 'Moderate Muslim' problem) reminds us that the title of "moderate Muslim" is often applied by the Liberal/Left to any Muslim who stands out from the crowd and can be described as a leader.

Items of interest in the news media's coverage of "moderate Muslims":


• The New York Times, Oct. 19, 2001: "Imam Anwar Al-Awlaki, spiritual leader at the Dar al-Hijra mosque in Virginia, one of the nation's largest. . . . is held up as a new generation of Muslim leader capable of merging East and West."


• NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, Dec. 9, 2004: "It's the TV industry's newest experiment, 'Bridges TV,' billing itself the 'American-Muslim lifestyle network,' featuring movies, documentaries, cartoons. . . . It's the brainchild of Aasiya Hassan, an architect, and her husband, Muzzamil Hassan, a banker, who are disturbed that negative images of Muslims seem to dominate TV, especially since 9/11."


• Boston Globe editorial, Aug. 4, 2010: "The simple fact is there's nothing threatening about the proposed Islamic center, which is being spearheaded by Feisal Abdul Rauf, one of the most respected moderate Muslim leaders in the country."

So how "moderate" were these Muslims?

Most readers probably know of Awlaki as the U.S.-born imam who presided over the mosque attended by two of the 9/11 hijackers. Awlaki also served as theological mentor to Fort Hood killer Nidal Malik Hassan, would-be Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, and Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad. President Obama has authorized the military to assassinate Awlaki, now thought to be living in Yemen.

I would not put a great deal of faith in the NY Times ability to distinguish between "moderate Muslims" and their radical brethren.

Rather than inspire his followers to kill more Americans, Muzzamil Hassan only cut off his wife's head when she tried to leave him.  It's merely an Islamic custom.  That make him more "moderate" than Awlaki.

Feisal Abdul Rauf, the latest "moderate Muslim" is the leader of the group planning to build the Ground Zero Mosque.  He lays part of the blame for 9/11 on America and refuses to call Hamas a terrorist group. If this is as "moderate" as Islam gets, I agree with Roger Kimball when he says

My own view, which I’ve stated in this space before, is that Islam is fundamentally incompatible with “foundational Western values like free speech, the separation of church and state, and equality under the law. Such things are not simply missing from Islam: they are positively repudiated by Islam.”

It seems that it takes a certain set of characteristics to be anointed a "moderate Muslim" by the MFM.  One indispensable characteristic is to be at least as anti-American as the MFM.  If you can denounce Country America with -at least - the vehemence of the NY Times, you're a "moderate Muslim."