Libya looks set to chart moderate course on Islam

[tater]

Originally Posted by Betonov

If they bring it on a level that my Bosnian co-workers show, they'll achieve a lot

In the three, so-called "great" monotheisms, "moderation" has been achieved by ignoring segments of whichever holy book. In Islam, there are no large groups who have done this at all as a matter of sect doctrine. Some muslims are moderate simply because they are not terribly devout, or because they simply don't know what their own religion teaches. The same is true of jews and christians, BTW. Most of those know the 10 commandments, but how many know that the punishment for violating most of them is death?

So, there are no real moderate sects of Islam, but there are plenty of people who identify themselves as muslims who do not really practice good Islam, and are hence "moderate." The whole point of the Muslim Brotherhood, and similar organizations is to teach muslims arabic (the vast majority of muslims are unable to read their own holy book—200-something million people can speak or read arabic, and there are 1.2 billion muslims). Once they learn to read the koran, they become far more fundamentalist, since Islam requires literalism and infallibility of their silly book (again, the same is true of other, silly books).