“Moderate Muslims Are Not The Answer” Against Extremists

Reuel Marc Gerecht disputes the commonly held idea that cultivating moderate Muslims is the solution to the rise of extremists:

we can probably safely say that the moral suasion of “moderate Muslims,” whatever they were at any given time, did not turn back Islam’s many radical movements.[…] Moderate Muslims — hereby defined as those who just want to get on with their lives — have never been intellectually compelling, at least for those who like to read and write

I’m not too sure I buy this argument. True, people who just want to be left alone are by definition boring intellectually, but one can’t deny that there’s a strong case for moderation, living side by side other humans and just leading normal lives. Those violent extremists are causing revulsions in many parts of the Muslim world, and no matter how loud and violent they get, they remain strictly in the fringes. In other words, their “message” isn’t going through.