As I think I made clear in the last post, not everyone supports moderate Muslims. Radical Islamists (and assorted left-wing ideologues) consider them Uncle Toms and sellouts.

Perhaps it's because they dislike moderation in anything, but not everyone on the right likes the idea of moderate Muslims either. In a column calling moderate Muslims "a people without a religion," one Jen Shroder (writing at Alan Keyes's Renew America site) would seem to agree with Osama bin Laden that moderate Muslims are not "true Muslims":

....[T]he plight of the moderate Muslim is grave. As America slowly admits the enemy is true Islam, every effort must be made to embrace the moderate Muslim, not persecute them. The answer is not to blind our eyes and try to convince ourselves that moderate Muslims represent true Islam. They don't. Islam is defined by its holy books, and the holy books proclaim death to all who oppose it, even moderate Muslims. The answer is to live in reality, recognize the violence of true Islam as it rears its head, and ask moderate Muslims to reconsider. True Islam pronounces moderate Muslims as apostate, they are the "near enemies" in the Sira and without true conversion, they will be slaughtered right along with Christians and Jews. American Muslims need to take a hard look at what their Koran, in its entirety and true context, demands. They can no more denounce the method of Muhammad than Christians can denounce the sacrifice and love of God. I know, because as I battle with public educators for my children's religious freedom, I get angry, and God continually rebukes me for my anger. He reminds me of the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for them as well, and I am constantly humbled.

Also forgotten is the fact that religions evolve over time, and that radical Islam -- a modern reversion to brutal medieval primitivism -- is increasingly being seen as an aberration by many Muslims, who are not religious ideologues but who only want to live their lives in peace and prosperity. I can't think of a better way to betray them than to declare that their "true" religion is the same as that of Osama bin Laden.

I wonder how those few brave Islamic clerics who've denounced terror must feel to be told by American "conservatives" that they're not being true to their religion.

Hmmmm.....

I should add that don't like the over-use of quotation marks. But if I hadn't placed the word in quotes, people might say it wasn't fair to conservatives to call the Keyes organization conservative.

But what does that suggest about "true" conservatism?

Does anyone know what's true these days?