Waiting For Moderate Muslims Is Like Waiting For Godot

In recent weeks, I have been making the same statement over and over ad nauseum. Here it is:

There is not a single Islamic political organization, media outlet, academic institution, or government, of any appreciable size, anywhere in the world, which is moderate.

Those who read me are probably getting sick of hearing it. Perhaps, wondering if I have lost my edge, my ability to come up with new ideas on a daily basis. Maybe I have, because I confess, I am definately stuck on this idea. It seems to me there is no greater outrage in this world than this one simple truth.

I wonder whether many readers believe me when I write this, so on occasion I challenge those who read me to come up with one example of a moderate Muslim organization. I have yet to have a single commenter even attempt to rise to the challenge. And, if any do, I am extremely confident that I will be able to prove, in short order, that the organization is not at all moderate.

And, if there are any who do not believe me (for it is an extreme statement to make, even if true), well then, here is a Muslim who is saying the same thing as I (from the Toronto Sun):

In a recent column, Michael Coren, my colleague here at the Sun, demanded Muslims apologize for wrongs too numerous to list. Coren is right. I, as a Muslim, apologize without equivocation or reservation for the terrible crimes -- small and big -- committed by Muslims against non-Muslims and against Muslims, as in Darfur, who are weak and easy prey to those who hold power in the name of Islam.

I imagine, however, Coren is not seeking an apology from a person of Muslim faith such as I, who maintains no rank and cannot speak on behalf of the institutionalized world of Islam. Like many others who share his frustration and legitimate anger, Coren is asking to hear a contrite voice from within institutionalized Islam -- to repent for Muslim misconduct, past and present, that is indefensible by any standard of civility and decency, and seek forgiveness.

But Coren and others might well wait indefinitely for such an apology from those representatives of institutionalized Islam convinced of their own righteousness, even as they are engineers of a civilization's wreckage and prosper in it by the art of bullying.

Oh, we will not wait indefinitely. Of that, I can assure you. The problem for moderates who are Muslim is that we are getting sick of waiting. And the day that we become completely fed up will be a very sad day for all of humanity.