A key falsehood of the Muslim “moderates” exposed

Mark P. sent this passage from an article by Robert Spencer at FrontPage Magazine:

Western Muslims who claim that this is not Islamic law [putting apostates to death] are often hailed as moderates and reformers. This, however, ignores the fundamental difference between denial and reform. If the Protestant Reformers had simply begun indignantly denying that the Catholic Church taught Transubstantiation and the sacramental priesthood, instead of arguing that such doctrines should be discarded, they would not have been reformers, but obfuscators. A genuine Islamic reformer today would acknowledge that the death penalty for apostasy is mainstream Islamic teaching, affirmed by all the madhahib, or schools of jurisprudence, and then explain why this should be set aside. But that is not the same thing as claiming that Islam doesn’t teach this in the first place.

This is excellent. The observation in this passage about the Muslim “moderates” who instead of admitting the bad things about Islam deny that they exist, is something Spencer has touched on many times, but I have never seen him articulate it this clearly before. Here he finally “gets” it, and so the rest of us “get” it as well.

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From: Jeff in England
Subject: DON’T FORGET: EVERYBODY MUST GIVE SOMETHING BACK FOR SOMETHING THEY “GET”

Has Spencer “gotten it” enough to begin to see that severe immigration restriction is essential if we are to keep Islam from taking over the West? Nope! No use “getting it” if he doesn’t take action on it (I’m not saying you don’t know that). Unless the likes of Spencer and Melanie start dealing with the problem in a serious way, their “getting it” will be a waste of words for them and us. Less “getting it” and more “getting on with it!”

LA replies:

That’s a truly brilliant Dylan paraphrase.

However, when I said he “gets it,” that only referred to one discrete point about Islam, not to the whole Islam problem and what to do about it.

From Jeff
Subject: SUPPORTING MUSLIM IMMIGRATION RESTRICTION IS SO SIMPLE, TO QUOTE A PARAPHRASE

Thanks. What it means I don’t know, but it sounds right.

LA replies:

It means, if someone “gets” it about Islam, then he’s got to call for something meaningful to be DONE about it, he’s got to “give something back” to society, not just jerk us around the way all the Suspects do.

And now I’m looking at your latest paraphrase and you’ve surpassed yourself.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at March 20, 2007 03:59 PM | Send