The Problem with “Moderate” Islam as a Political Label
Western governments have spent twenty years promoting "moderate Islam" as an alternative to extremism. The concept has done more harm than good.
Since 2001, Western governments have pursued a consistent strategy: identify, fund and amplify Muslim voices and institutions that can be described as “moderate,” and thereby provide an alternative to the extremist narratives that they fear are filling the vacuum. The strategy has a certain logic; it has also been an almost unqualified failure.
The problem begins with the word itself. “Moderate” is not a theological category but a political one — it describes not what someone believes but how threatening their beliefs are to a particular audience. A Muslim who supports Palestinian rights fervently, who reads scripture in a relatively literal way, who wears Islamic dress and disapproves of gender mixing is not a moderate by many Western definitions — and yet may have nothing in common with the political violence that the “moderate Islam” strategy is designed to counter. The category is incoherent, and its incoherence has practical consequences.
