Winds of War: What is a Moderate Muslim?

The other night I watched the movie Exodus on TV and there was one scene in it that brought home the problem with moderate Muslims. Ari Ben Canaan, a Jew played by Paul Newman, was speaking to Taha, the mukhtar or his Arab village. Taha and Ari, who lived next store in the Jewish village, grew up together and were fast friends. In fact, Ari saved the life of Taha when a radical Muslim faction killed Taha’s mother and father.

When the partition of Palestine was announced on the radio and the British mandate was divided into Arab and Jewish states, Taha was distressed. His village was now in the state of Israel and said he felt like he lost his freedom. Ari said that was absurd. The Jews and Arabs just gained their freedom from the British. To Ari, nothing had changed. Both Arabs and Jews in Jewish Palestine were now citizens of Israel.

Taha thought about this but was called away to the next room where Arab radicals told him to prepare to attack Ari’s village. When Taha returned he said he must side with his Arab ethnic group. Ari asked why? “We fought side-by-side against people like those in the past. Why not fight together to stop their radical agenda now.”

And here was the telling of the tale.

Read the rest at The Gathering Storm.