Don’t waste time courting ‘moderate’ Muslims

Enlisting the help of ‘moderate’ Muslims is pointless

Funny the difference a few weeks can make. When I went away for an extended holiday, the subtle but unmistakable consensus on the threat to life and limb was more or less as it had been for some years: that jihadists are rotten fellows, but only small in number when compared with the ‘vast majority’ of ‘moderate Muslims’ who are, of course, not culpable. At all. Of anything. Ever.

When I came back, the consensus had shifted. Now, it appears, they might be a teeny bit worthy of blame after all — not for the violence itself, but for failing to keep their hotheads in line. Headlines are thundering: ‘We need Muslims to do more’, ‘Muslims have to join this battle’ and ‘Muslims must raise their voices in anger’. It’s been the battle cry of the summer so far — we demand that moderate Muslims persuade, cajole and convince their radicals, for all the world as if they can actually do as we ask.

The fact is, even if they would, there’s not a virgin’s chance in paradise that they could; you might as well have asked Terry Wogan to rein in the IRA. And nothing illustrates the inherent difficulties better than, if you will indulge me, reflections on my recent sojourn.

To wile away time in the American Bible Belt, as I do for many months of each year, is to witness Christian fundamentalism at its fruitiest, nuttiest, rancorous best. On our little coastal Georgia island it is a proud boast that there are more churches than bars, while clever sleight of county planning ensures it will stay that way; no hard liquor licence may be given to premises within 500 yards of a house of the Gud Lawd and upon that all are agreed.