Posted: Apr 04, 2011 11:05 am
Beatsong wrote:jez9999 wrote:The way I see it, a 'moderate Muslim' is generally someone who doesn't obey everything in the Quran, whether or not they say they do...
Thoughts?
That's not my understanding.
It seems to me that most people use the term more to describe that persons actions towards others, and in particular the fact that they don't attempt to impose their Islam upon others. A moderate muslim is one who doesn't commit or support terrorist or violent extremist acts, campaign for punishment of gays etc. Who is able to live in a pluralistic society accepting that not everybody follows the same religion as them.
How that person deals with the problems and contradictions in their holy book is their own business. As long as they don't get in the way of my life, I don't feel the controlling need to design a box for them so I can gloat that they don't fit it properly, as you seem to.
It is fortunate that most religious people of any faith are what we can classify as moderates. Religions are not completely static in their values and instructions. They were created by man, from man's perception of the world and other people, and as such, just like man, religions, too, evolve over time. For example, many now accept evolution and don't have an issue with homosexuals...etc.
If the majority weren't moderates, and if religions didn't have room to shift goal-posts and change, then societal development would have been far slower if not impossible.
Still, moderates, as peaceful, moral, accepting, tolerant and non-violent as they are, they still perpetuate the religion. And even if they don't instill a mistrust of science and preach against others, in the next generation there are bound to be individuals, who, for one reason or another, will be more fundamentalist in what they take away from their religion, especially if they are indoctrinated in childhood, and even more so if there are out-dated, bigoted, narrow-minded views about the world and the people in it and violence at its core.
Granted, with the easy access to information these days, less and less people will have a problem educating themselves. Naturally, some will only seek information already conforming to their preconceived notions and prejudices and many will still be biased, but many more can learn not to do that.