The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
A Moderate School of Islam
“Five hundred Pakistani religious scholars have warned that anyone who expresses grief over the assassination of a senior ruling party official who opposed the country’s blasphemy law could suffer the same fate,” Reuters reports:
The Jamaat-e-Ahl-e-Sunnat Pakistan group of scholars making the veiled threat is actually from a moderate school of Islam in Pakistan.
It is a vocal critic of Taliban militants violently opposed to the government and its ally Washington.
The group is one of the largest representing scholars from the mainstream Barelvi sect of Sunni Muslims. Although moderate, they have been leading protests in favour of the blasphemy law.
The hardline stand taken by the moderates illustrates how difficult it can be for Washington, which sees Islamabad as indispensable in its war on militancy, to persuade Pakistani leaders to crack down harder on religious extremism.
So a moderate Muslim is one who calls for the murder of those who oppose strict blasphemy laws and for the murder of those who grieve the victims of such murders. To be clear, that’s according to Reuters, not us. And as evidenced by its careful use of the phrase “war on militancy,” Reuters is very precise about the use of language.
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