Moderate Islam Quotes

I think it's been hard for people to understand how Islam can be a good religion, and yet the Islamists are evil. Those of us who have had experience with Islam understand this, just as we understand the difference between snake handlers and people going to church on Sunday morning.

Islam does have two faces—a bright face and an evil face, and we must work with the former. The reaction of Moslems against Islamic extremism doesn’t get the coverage it should.

No Muslim country is going the way of Turkey. Even Turkey has stopped going the way of Turkey.

The Islamic State is a threat to both the moderate Islam headed by Mr. Saad al-Hariri and, of course, for Hezbollah. There is a convergence, an anxiety of a common enemy... which is good.

Traditional Moslems have much the same outlook as traditional Jews and traditional Christians. On the other hand, radical Islam has been gaining ground…. Islam has been around for more than a millennium and radical Islam has only been around for a couple of hundred years.

The fundamental question I believe is, 'Is political Islam in our best interest?' If not, what is our policy to authoritatively support the countervailing forces?

Indonesia is the world's third-largest democracy. And we also have the world's largest Muslim population. This demonstrates that democracy and Islam are not incompatible. Terrorism is not associated with any religion.

We want Austrian-style Islam, not one controlled by other states.

If radical Islam is ever to be shunted aside it will be by other Moslems with alternate interpretations.

Moderate Islam seeks balance between intellect and the heart, between religion and the world, between spirituality and materialism and between individualism and the group

A stable democratic system cannot be established without the effective participation of the mainstream, moderate, Islamic movement.

We represent the moderate teachings and principles of Islam.

Our strategy should be to strengthen the hand of moderate Muslims.

Those who say that the West and Islam are eternally irreconcilable have more in common with the Islam extremists than they might like to think, for it's the very same argument of course advanced by Al-Qaida. And they do have it wrong. We need to work with mainstream Islam.

Southeast Asia is an area in which there is a form of Islam which is both devout and progressive, and therefore to be supported. It's an area in which I see a congruence of American interests and local interests: to have tolerant societies and become more prosperous.

The forces that led to radical Islam, the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda, Islamic State, can ultimately only be defeated by moderate Muslims around the globe, countries like U.A.E. that have led the fight within their own border to promote tolerance.

The West has been calling for years for the forces of moderate Islam to stand up to the very small percentage but very large number of radical Muslims all around the world. When countries - the U.A.E. or Egypt or Jordan - do that, we need to highlight it, we need to celebrate it, and we need to continue to encourage it.

I can tell you that the majority of the Egyptians I know, they think of a much wider spectrum of people than the Muslim Brotherhood.

I don't believe there is such a thing as 'moderate Islam.' I think it's better to talk about degrees of belief and degrees of practice.

I am not big on the idea that a rapid injection of democracy will reform radical Moslems.

Yes, women should be free to cover their faces when walking down the street. But in our schools, hospitals, airports, banks and civil institutions, it is not unreasonable - nor contrary to the teachings of Islam - to expect women to show the one thing that allows the rest of us to identify them... namely, their face.

There are common denominators that unite all members of al-Nahda: There is no one in al-Nahda who doubts about Islam There is no one in al-Nahda that believes in extremist views of Islam.

We are Muslim democrats, not Islamists

What you have to be concerned about are the extremists. On the whole, we need to understand the more moderate Muslims before they become more radicalized.

Islamic terrorist organizations use sections of the Koran to recruit and brainwash idealistic young Moslems to engage in violent, murderous attacks on non-Moslems. The important question facing Moslem leaders … is, how do they teach and explain these passages from the Koran to their Moslem congregations and Moslem school students? Is it made absolutely clear that even though those passages are in the Koran, which is their Holy Book, they only applied in the 7th century not the 21st century? It is vitally important that moderate Moslem leaders … do not let Islamic extremists use these passages to recruit vulnerable, Moslem young people into any Islamic terrorist organization.