Military instructor and researcher Hussein Aboubakr explains: “After every new Jihadist attack against the West, politicians reassure us that the atrocity does not represent the true nature of mainstream Islam. Of the 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, they constantly reassure us, the overwhelming majority are as law abiding as any members of any other monotheistic faith. Only a tiny fraction engage in terror. And Islam is a religion of peace. Furthermore, we are told, the great majority of Muslims hold moderate views.”
But what does “moderate” mean? How moderate are moderate Muslims?
According to the Pew Research Center, 88% of Muslims in Egypt; 62% in Pakistan; 86% in Jordan and 51% in Nigeria, believe Muslim apostates should be executed. Similar numbers are in favour of stoning adulterers, enforcing severe blasphemy laws, and cutting off the hands of thieves.
All of these practices are part of the penal code of Islamic law known as Sharia. And 84% of Muslims in South Asia; 77% in Southeast Asia; 74% in the Middle East and North Africa; and 64% in Sub-Saharan Africa support Sharia as the law of the land. Less drastic, yet significant, percentages are to be found even among Muslim communities in the West.
“Does any of these sound moderate to you?” Aboubakr asks. “Yet if anyone raises these inconvenient truths here in the West, he is sure to be called an Islamophobe, a hater of Islam.”
In the following video by PragerU, Aboubakr explains:
If moderation means you tolerate freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, women’s rights and gay rights, moderate Muslims are a distinct minority… among believing Muslims, they don’t represent anywhere near a critical mass.
