very good question. DU likes to pretend all the problems are the fault of Israel and the West. Anything that deviates from those precepts is neo-con something or other.

The pope can call for all Christians to do this that or the other, there's a large percentage who don't care what the pope says on anything any more than a Catholic cares what Pat Robertson says.

There is doctrinal overlap between those. And the sunni Imams andsoforth could use that as a starting-point.

Last edited Tue Mar 22, 2016, 12:45 PM - Edit history (1)

I can only extrapolate from my experiences in a Protestant church... but it's not very often we see policies or programs implicitly designed and distributed by the Presbyterian church to keep us out of the Klan or from adopting Dominionism or blowing up women's health centers. More often than not, messages such as that are inherent in the culture of the specific church I would think.

no answers here.

Islamic terrorism has been denounced by some of the ulema, but other sheiks, imams etc think that violent jihad is a religious duty. I imagine it's a very small percentage of religious scholars that think that way but it's enough apparently for groups like hamas, hezbullah, isis etc to feel that Islam is supporting their violence and terrorism.

One thing that is being done in KSA of all places is to "treat" terrorists and change their belief systems to a more moderate view of Islam.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/magazine/09jihadis-t.html?_r=0

But Islam is not centralized and hierarchical like Catholicism, or even coordinated by affiliation to governing bodies like, say, Southern Baptists. There really is no vehicle for large scale unified action. Thankfully this hampers the reach of the extremists too, as they are similarly formed of often competing fragmented groups with some loose affiliation.

Then we must accept that Islamic radicals serve a purpose for some of the less, or less overtly, radical power structures in Islam. Saudi money hardly accidentally flows to support such groups, and even Shi'a Iran, while not supporting Sunni hardliners in any meaningful way, probably aren't too upset that their actions are a nice distracting boogeyman for the Great Satan as long as the nastiness stays outside their borders. Not that Sunni radicals would listen to them anyway.

Which leaves us relying on individual scholars and preachers to carry that messge, and here we face the age old problem that its harder to be a charismatic shepherd in the name of moderation than in the name of extremes.

.... there was a really terrific segment on public radio (can't recall what show) that addressed this within the past few weeks.

I likely have more interaction with the "Muslim community" in the US than the "average" American and I generally see horrified and frequently pro-active responses on their part. I don't know what is said and done in the ME or other predominantly Muslim countries.