Hate To Break This To You: Moderate Isn't Mainstream and Extremist Isn't Radical

Andy McCarthy at NRO illustrates the way that the MSM uses adjectives like "moderate" and "radical" in nonsensical ways. In ways that signal which side you need to be on.

In Indonesia, which sport's the world's largest Muslim population, the Associated Press reports that the government (in yet another of these Islamic "democracies" that "guarantees freedom of religion") has ordered a "moderate" Muslim sect to return to the "mainstream" of Islam or risk imprisonment for debasing Islam. The Ahmadi — whose persecution I have detailed previously — do not accept Mohammed as the final prophet or jihad as a divine injunction. Not withstanding the above, the AP blithely reports as fact its opinion that "the vast majority of Indonesia's Muslims are moderate"

Here's the report :

MUSLIM SECT TOLD TO RETURN TO MAINSTREAM ISLAM

Members of a moderate Muslim sect were ordered by the government Monday to return to mainstream Islam or face possible imprisonment for insulting the country's predominant religion.
Critics may see the step as a failure by the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to uphold the young democracy's secular values as it struggles to define its Muslim identity after decades of dictatorship.

The vast majority of Indonesia's Muslims are moderate, but in recent years an extremist fringe has grown louder. The government, which relies on the support of Islamic parties in Parliament, has been accused of caving in to their demands.

The document signed Monday by two Cabinet ministers and the attorney general "orders all Ahmadiyah followers to stop their activities" or face up to five years in prison.

Indonesia's constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but many in the nation of 235 million consider it offensive that the sect does not recognize Muhammad as the last prophet. [ME: Must be that darned fringe!]

Just in case there's any doubt, the "mainstream" followers of Islam in Indonesia are threatening the "moderate" members of this sect with death if they don't renounce their apostasy.

In other words: surrender your principles ... for your own good, of course. After all, you'll otherwise have to deal with the wrath of those "extremists" and "radicals" who, it turns out, are defending "mainstream Islam."

If your head isn't spinning after that, you don't understand the situation.