A Moderate Islam

In the book Successful Intelligence, Robert Sternberg offers a step-by-step approach for problem solving. As I recall, one step was "representing information," referring to the accurate representation of information as crucial to determining a solution.

In solving the problem of defeating the Jihadists, Robert Spencer, in quotes like the one below, offers us some rare accurate information -- information we may not want to confront, but eventually must:

The people whom non-Muslim analysts tend to call "Islamists" are those who believe that Sharia should be the law of the land -- every land -- and are willing to do violence to bring that about. But these people are merely traditional Muslims, acting on the example of the prophet Muhammad and core teachings of the Qur'an and Hadith. They move about freely among Muslims and are found in every Muslim community. Most often, Western analysts use the term "Islamists" to suggest a vast majority of Muslims who do not accept "Islamist" premises or principles. Unfortunately, however, such people do not in fact generally exist. There are Muslims, often known as moderate Muslims, who are unaware of or indifferent to the premises of political Islam, and a much smaller number who are honestly trying to reject or reform those principles; but a genuinely moderate Islam -- a Muslim system that accepts the principles of Western pluralism and is ready to teach Muslims to live in harmony with non-Muslims as equals, not as current or eventual superiors and masters -- does not exist.

Bottom line: the fact that we wish there were a system of moderate Islam, does not make it so.