"Richard L. Benkin has put forth a solid collection of chapters on
one of the most critical topics of the dayódistinguishing between
moderate Muslims and Islamists. With the growing threat of Islamist
groups in the Middle East and their affiliates in the West, the issue of
identifying moderates necessitates a clear and guided answer, which
is detailed throughout these chapters. This book is a must-read for
anyone seeking to understand the complexities and nuances of the
Muslim world at large." - Asaf Romirowsky, Middle East Forum
Radical Islam is a major affliction of the contemporary world. Each year, radical Islamists
carry out terrorist attacks that result in a massive death toll, almost always involving
noncombatants and innocents. Estimates of how many Muslims could be considered
followers of radical Islam vary widely, and there are few guides to help distinguish
moderates from radicals. Observers often sit at the extremes, either seeing all Muslims as
open or closeted jihadis or recoiling from any attempt to link Islam with international terror.
Both positions are overly simplistic, and the lack of rational principles to absolve the
innocent and identify the accomplices of terror has led to governments and individuals
mistakenly accepting jihadis as moderate. What is Moderate Islam? brings together an array
of scholars and activists -Muslim and non-Muslim- to provide this missing insight. This
wide-ranging collection examines the relationship among Islam, civil society, and the state.
The contributors investigate how radical Islamists can be distinguished from moderate
Muslims, analyze the potential for moderate Islamic governance, and challenge monolithic
conceptions of Islam.
CONTRIBUTORS
Navras Jaat Aafreedi; Anonymous, a Pashtun Muslim woman; Aziz Baloch; Meerain
Baloch; Richard L. Benkin; Naseer Dashti; Umar Duad Khattak; Sunil Kukreja; Daniel
Pipes; Amitabh Tripathi; Kulbhushan Warikoo.
RICHARD L. BENKIN received a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and is the author
of A Quiet Case of Ethnic Cleansing: The Murder of Bangladeshís Hindus. |