We met with Dr. Ahmed Abbadi, the Secretary General of the Mohammadian League of Moroccan Scholars ... the ulimah (scholarly body) of Islam in Morocco. There could be no better face of Islam. He is soft spoken, incredibly intelligent, approachable, easy to laugh and very much in touch with the rest of the world.
In the course of the conversation, he noted that their challenge is to meet seven standard rallying complaints used by exremist Muslims.
1) The humiliating cariucatures of Islam and Muslims that feature so prominently in our press and on our streets.
2) A perception of a double standard in which, for instance, the US denounces Iran for a potential nuclear weapons program but never speaks against Israel for its own arsenal.
3) The history of colonization by the West.
4) The horrible acts of the past ... Inquisition and Crusades among them.
5) The ravaging consumption of the oil of the Muslim world, typically at ridiculously low prices.
6) The explicit and/or clandestine role of the West in the demise of the Ottoman Empire in the 20th century.
7) The U.S. actions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Dr. Abbadi pointed out the list of complaints made by conservative Americans against the Muslim world as well. Here, I simply wonder if we ought not to be taking the complaints of the Muslim world more seriously.
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