Moderate Muslims

By accident I forwarded an email posted to me by my Mom. I should have thought to check Snopes. We keep asking her to do it before she forwards but she doesn't. It involved a claim that U of Kentucky canceled a Holocaust course due to some kind of nod to Muslim students. I definitely should have checked because it was false. (You can click on the colored links for more.) I got a reply from one of my friends that most Muslims are "moderate" and that to forward something like this is to go against the very peace loving nature of the Muslim community. I feel bad but I also am a skeptic. I would like to hear the Muslim leadership do more publicly.

It got me thinking about this assertion. First I looked at a bunch of websites related to college campuses and holocaust deniers (very depressing!) and then I looked at more about the Muslim movement towards moderation. (very sparse!) The Muslim group that the United Reform Jewish movement in its infinite wisdom chose to partners with is suspect. There was an interesting response to this choice by some Muslim groups who claim moderation and I will be looking to see if they merit support.

While there is so much garbage on the web that it is difficult to know what is true, I did happen across some very surprising info. And very scary. If anyone knows of legitimate moderate Muslim groups which publicly denouncing an interpretation of their Sharia laws which seems to encourage murder, mistreatment of women, etc. --I would like to support them. I am far from a scholar on Qu'ran and want to learn more. Please forward.

All of this makes me very sad. I do have some Muslim friends but we are all very careful never to discuss the elephant in the room. Maybe it is time for an honest dialog.