Authentic Moderate Moslem Imam Spotted in France
If you haven't heard of Hassen Chalghoumi, don't blame Islam. Blame the US media. Nine returns on Google News, not one in English. The Italian press agency ANSA reported this story. I don't believe this book has been reviewed anywhere in the English-language press. He's well-known in France, but you'd have to be really combing the news to know his name in America. He's surely trying his best to be heard, however. You cannot say he isn't trying.
An advocate for an Islam that respects the values of France known for his position against the full veil, the imam of the Mosque of Drancy (near Paris), Hassen Chalghoumi, published a book caustic book, Pour l'Islam de France, in which he criticises threats of Islamification, which in his view are looming over the country where he has lived since 1996. In bookstores tomorrow, the night before the end of Ramadan, the pamphlet, reports Le Parisien today, fiercely attacks the burqa, as well as forced marriages, female genital mutilations, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Union of Islamic Organisations of France (UOIF). His heavy criticism is destined to provoke violent reactions: it's no coincidence that the 37-year-old Tunisian imam is always surrounded by bodyguards after months of hostile demonstrations following his statements about the full veil that led to the closure for several days of the mosque in Seine-Saint-Denis department, which has a high population of Muslim immigrants. Now he has said enough to the constant postponements to the publication of the book. ...
He has also been fighting to bring the Jewish community closer, he has accused the Muslim Brotherhood and UOIF of trying to alter French Islam through a war over control of French mosques, and he underlined that "it was Tariq Ramadan (the controversial theologian) who caused a build-up of racism in Switzerland, which led to the vote against minarets."
A shame that no one has sub-titled this interview in English.
Rough translation: He's the real thing--a pious Moslem who rejects radical Islam root and branch. He claims to represent the "silent majority." That's an exaggeration, but it's also an exaggeration to say the numbers of men and women like him are so small as to be politically trivial.
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May '10
Re: Authentic Moderate Moslem Imam Spotted in France
He's a delightful anomaly, though I'm willing to wager that the majority of vocal Muslim views of him are comparable to the majority of vocal black liberal views of, say, Thomas Sowell.
Jun '10
Re: Authentic Moderate Moslem Imam Spotted in France
Claire, sounds to me like he’s an endangered species.
Re: Authentic Moderate Moslem Imam Spotted in France
Of course he is. You will never, ever hear me denying the reality, prevalence and danger of Islamic radicalism. I'm the original shrill alarmist on the subject. But Moslems like this are in danger of double extinction--first at the hands of Islamic extremists, then at the hands of a media determined to ignore them in favor of promoting faux-moderate media darlings like Tariq Ramadan. If the genuine moderates have no media platform, it makes it that much more difficult for their ideas to spread, and that much more difficult for the silent minority to feel that if they speak up, they at least will not be alone.
Jun '10
Re: Authentic Moderate Moslem Imam Spotted in France
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
Of course he is. You will never, ever hear me denying the reality, prevalence and danger of Islamic radicalism. I'm the original shrill alarmist on the subject. But Moslems like this are in danger of double extinction--first at the hands of Islamic extremists, then at the hands of a media determined to ignore them in favor of promoting faux-moderate media darlings like Tariq Ramadan. If the genuine moderates have no media platform, it makes it that much more difficult for their ideas to spread, and that much more difficult for the silent minority to feel that if they speak up, they at least will not be alone. · Sep 28 at 8:21am
Point taken.
Re: Authentic Moderate Moslem Imam Spotted in France
Where is the counterpart of this gentleman in the United States? Surely we can produce an anti-extremist who is brave enough to put it in writing. And it isn't Imam Feisel Abdul Rauf.
May '10
Re: Authentic Moderate Moslem Imam Spotted in France
Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, at the American Islamic Forum for Democracy:
http://www.aifdemocracy.org/about/
May '10
Re: Authentic Moderate Moslem Imam Spotted in France
Denise, this guy was mentioned before and seems to be doing a fair job here in America.
Re: Authentic Moderate Moslem Imam Spotted in France
Frankly, Denise, I wouldn't at all be surprised if there are quite some number of them--all being ignored by the media and the publishing industry on the grounds that what they say sounds "Islamophobic," or--more cravenly--out of fear that if they give them a platform, they'll end up needing bodyguards, too.
Jul '10
Re: Authentic Moderate Moslem Imam Spotted in France
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
Of course he is. You will never, ever hear me denying the reality, prevalence and danger of Islamic radicalism. I'm the original shrill alarmist on the subject. But Moslems like this are in danger of double extinction--first at the hands of Islamic extremists, then at the hands of a media determined to ignore them in favor of promoting faux-moderate media darlings like Tariq Ramadan. If the genuine moderates have no media platform, it makes it that much more difficult for their ideas to spread, and that much more difficult for the silent minority to feel that if they speak up, they at least will not be alone. · Sep 28 at 8:21am
I agree with everything Claire has said here... with the exception that he is an endangered species. He may be considered an endangered species in the Western media and politics. But even that would not be accurate; his species hardly ever existed in the Western media and politics in the first place.
To be cont'd...
Jul '10
Re: Authentic Moderate Moslem Imam Spotted in France
While Arab money that is channeled into the Western media and politics prefers faux-moderate media darlings like Tariq Ramadan (do not forget nearly all advisors to the White House happen to have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood) and makes sure to exclude real moderates (and moderates do not all have to be imams or pious Muslims, do they?), there is no support for moderates or what I call "ordinary Muslims," those who do not wear their religion on their sleeves or even those who practice it in a limited fashion. After all, isn't there a freedom of religious expression for those who choose to practice their religion partially? Isn't that also someone's religiosity? Why can't Muslims be like many Christians or Jews? The answer: The Arab money that has monopolized the discussion, distorting the reality of Islam in favor of the Wahabi interpretation and forcing the West to totally disregard hundreds of millions (if not more) ordinary Muslims around the world.
And yes, the Islamist threat against the well-being of those who speak out and those who give the moderates a platform is a factor.
May '10
Re: Authentic Moderate Moslem Imam Spotted in France
Okan explains why I think it is essential that the GWOT be continued, and fought on every front, with the limited ROE that respect non-combatants (in other words, no "more rubble, less trouble" leveling of landscapes), using far greater targeted economic aid, far more use of information/media, reform of US energy use to reduce oil focus, and, most important of all, explicitly pointing out over and over again that:
1) Our battle is against jihadists, not Muslims
2) We will protect the good guys as much as possible
3) We will fight forever, no "pull-out" deadlines- you can't run out the clock
If we as a society are unwilling to wage the war that way, we will eventually lose, and we will deserve to lose. You cannot fight the Gotterdammerung war cheaply over 2 years. And it doesn't go away if you ignore it, CATO Institute notwithstanding.