Libertarian Librarian

Just signed. Also had a look around Muslim Refusenik in general, and I'm heartened by Irshad's revival of ijtihad.

I've just one tiny reservation in all this: I wish we could find a better name for the extremists, something other than "Islamist". They take religion in vain and we permit it to them in the label we give them.
 

Isn't it sad that these twelve Muslims, like any of the other few Islamic moderates to speak-up, are targeted for death by the "hijackers" of their religion? Sad and, unfortunately, typical.

I'm not going to sign it because, as noted by Sullivan, the Ummah website stated the following:

"Excellent - makes killing the kuffar [apostate] all the bit easier... Now we have a hit list of a 'Who's Who' guide to slam into."

I do not want to overtly put my family at risk for sanction by Islamic "militants" intent on killing infidels (possibly like this case from a year ago). Besides, while I truly don't want to think about any situation in which suspected Islamic "activists" murder my wife and child, I also don't want to contemplate my possible reaction and retaliation.

Here's hoping that the moderates are able to hijack the Muslim faith.

Benedictus Dominus Deus meus qui docet manus meas ad proelium digitos meos ad bellum.
 

A few examples of Muslim moderation from two weeks ago:

05 March 2006
Another American flag being burned in protest of the lack of U.S. assistance following the earthquakes in Pakistan. Oops! My bad. The Stars and Stripes are being burned over the prophet cartoons. What is it going to take to get them to realize that the vast majority of the U.S. press is far too wimpy to publish those cartoons?

06 March 2006
Islamic "insurgents" fired on two homes of some Buddhist families in Thailand, killing three of the inhabitants before setting their homes on fire.

07 March 2006
Islamic terror isn't new. Michael Seurat was kidnapped by "militants" in 1985. His remains were accidentally found by construction workers digging in a Shiite suburb of Beirut this month.

Look out! These Muslims are ready for a "Holly War" over the prophet cartoons.

08 March 2006
Here's a burning Danish flag. Tolerant, aren't they?
 

And now some from this past week:

13 March 2006
Just in case anyone thinks that Islam (you know, just those few extremists who have hijacked the religion) has gotten over the cartoons thingy, here is a picture of some Pakistani women from last Monday. Could someone over there please remind them who it was that initially printed the cartoons?

14 March 2006
Here's a protest in front of the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia. Either they want us all to go to hell, or they are very upset with the Ugandan Slalom Association.

18 March 2006
Here is the U.S. flag, being burned by Pakistani Islamists, again. If I burn their flag, am I:

A. a racist?
B. a xenophobe?
C. an Islamophobe?
D. a redneck?
E. committing a hate-crime?
F. all of the above?
 

Oh no! Here's another cartoon that could start riots. Watch out for Chechen rebels protesting this one before the Palestinians rise up over it.
 

KABUL, Afghanistan, March 23 -- Senior Muslim clerics demanded Thursday that an Afghan man on trial for converting from Islam to Christianity be executed, warning that if the government caves in to Western pressure and frees him, they will incite people to "pull him into pieces."

In an unusual move, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned President Hamid Karzai on Thursday seeking what she called a "satisfactory outcome" of the case of Abdul Rahman. The 41-year-old former medical aid worker faces the death penalty under Afghanistan's Islamic laws for becoming a Christian.

His trial has fired passions in this conservative Muslim nation and highlighted a conflict of values between Afghanistan and its Western backers.

"Rejecting Islam is insulting God. We will not allow God to be humiliated. This man must die," said cleric Abdul Raoulf, who is considered a moderate and was jailed three times for opposing the Taliban before the hard-line regime was ousted in 2001.

"Rejecting Islam is insulting God." Well, Abdul, I think that the whole lot of you are insulting and I hope that someone, God or the 2nd Battalion 24th Marines, corrects that situation.

Are we still believing that it is only a "few radicals" who have "hijacked a peaceful religion?"