Holy Alliance

I have been agonizing and procastinating over how to handle my re-emergence from a new malady, namely "Blogger's Block". But I just saw something that I didn't want to delay commenting on. And I know this is going to sound pretentious, but.

But.

But we, the moderates in the Muslim World--and I use that word advisedly, to mean people who have a strong faith, but who disagree with the "Islamic Parties" (notice I avoid the word "Islamist") on matters of ideology, politics, and how society should be structured and run; we who have have not, on the other hand, traditionally been either socialist-leaning, or, to put it in South Asian terms, in the "tharaqqi-pasandh" ("progressive"--then understood to mean "commie") camp--we, dare I say, the silent majority of the Muslim world (notice I avoid the word "Ummah"), have always felt that these "Islamic Parties" have been rather, shall we say, inconsistent between their rhetoric and their actual alliances ("qaul wa feyl" we say in the community). If you wanted proof, the documents are now available:

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2006/01/holy_warrior.html