Moderate Muslims, Twenty Years Ago

Lisa Schiffren, writing at NRO, has a post today that’s very interesting to me. Here’s how it begins:

While we are on the subject of the problems with Islam in today’s world — and when are we not, these days? — let me say that I, like many who went to college in the 70s and 80s, knew plenty of moderate Muslims back then. The Arab, Pakistani, and Turkish women I went to school with at Bryn Mawr were about as moderate as you could imagine. Some were secular and some were religious, and all were nationalists. But they all believed in science, democracy, economic reforms to help the poor, the importance of bringing home a practical technocratic education to help their country advance, and, oh yes, more freedom and legal rights for women. Of all classes.

Schiffren then talks about the friends she knew and some of their expectations. We really have failed those women, mostly because we chose temporary political expediency over lasting political liberation. We really did fail those women badly and it’s no wonder that they don’t trust us.

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Category: The Long War Here At Home