Islam's Silent Majority

By ROBERT ASGHAR

<http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1028852034479643200,00.html?mod=opinion%5Fmain%5Fcommentaries>http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1028852034479643200,00.html?mod=opinion%5Fmain%5Fcommentaries

Innocents are killed in Murree, Pakistan, at a school that I visited from

time to time as a teenager. Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl

loses his life in Karachi, a town that was once my home. And an Islamabad

church is attacked, just a few miles away from another previous home. In

each incident, the name of Allah is invoked. The question is then asked

once again: Is Islam a religion of peace?

Many Muslims are peaceful, and I was raised in one such family. However,

it's quite clear that they are by and large not the hosts of the party,

but rather bashful guests. For the sake of their faith -- and for the sake

of a world that Islam professes to care about -- the time has come for

them to step forward, take control of their assembly, and kick out those

who preach a more violent version of the faith.

My family's story intersects in odd ways with the narrative being played

out globally. While recognizing the demands of self-defense and just war,

I have a pacifistic streak; that streak did not seem to be accommodated

within Islam, so I affiliated with another religion, much to the chagrin

of my family.

Here is where they began setting a good example for their faith. Many such

families toss out apostates in the best-case scenario and often do much

more -- a Kurdish immigrant in Sweden killed his adult daughter in January

for defying their heritage. But my family made peace with my decision and

kept me in the fold.

When it came to light after Sept. 11 that Pakistani madrasas had nourished

a culture of hatred, my father used a significant amount of his life

savings to build new schools in his mud-hut hometown village -- schools

that would offer a liberal education and inculcate an anti-extremist

approach to civil life and offer economic opportunity to marginalized

youths.

Such acts come at the risk of inflaming the passions of radicals. People

like my father will need the support and protection of like-minded

moderates. Most Muslims are in fact both moderate and cowardly, but

perhaps understandably so; they are buffeted by bullying forces unlike

anything we know. American agnostics who dislike saying the Pledge of

Allegiance, like spoiled princesses who feel a pea under a stack of

mattresses, have no idea how good they have it.

The bullying limits opposition to nothing more than snide mutterings among

progressives cowering at dinner parties in Pakistan, Palestine or Saudi

Arabia. Far be it from them to challenge extremism publicly, however --

it's not worth the fight or the trouble, in their minds.

But now their very civilization is at stake -- and so is that of the West.

It's time to put one's money where one's prayers are. The rest of the

world is looking on with puzzlement and fear, wondering where the heart of

Islam lies. In all likelihood, the outcry against Islam will grow

deafening in coming months and years. This will polarize moderate Muslims:

Either they will feel under attack and align themselves fully with their

fundamentalist cousins, or they will become radical moderates, fighting

for the honor of Islam against these backward cousins. The former scenario

would be a disaster for the planet.

Here, one can learn from white Americans. Fifty years ago, racist views

were tolerated, even encouraged by mainstream society. The Marge Schotts

of our nation used to get away with their rantings, thanks to the tepid

response of most white citizens; but now, such bigots are ostracized with

devastating swiftness. Sure, you can be a racist -- but you'd better keep

it under wraps if you plan on working in this town again.

Let that be a lesson for Muslims. Too many people have been thrown out of

Muslim families for being insufficiently fundamentalist. Start throwing

out sons and daughters for being insufficiently peaceful. Too many Muslims

are more bothered by competing forms of monotheism than by demonic forces

rumbling in their own camp. Too many hundreds of millions of Muslims can

tolerate, rationalize and even promote violence. All this must change, and

change now.

Granted, the language of the Koran can seem aggressive and belligerent to

some ears. But let the graceful image of Prophet Mohammed, depicted by

scholars such as Huston Smith, become the normative one for Muslims and

Westerners alike. The prophet was long-suffering and merciful toward

Meccan authorities who had abused him during his ministry. Let a

Palestinian child meditate on that. Let Muslims tolerate no lower standard

of civic life, and divorce all those who would object.

The five million Muslims who call the United States home are the best

candidates to step forward and set this standard. Doing so would give

Islam an authentic claim as a religion of peace.

Mr. Asghar is a Los Angeles-based editor of management and leadership

books.