Where have all the moderates gone?

The recent uproar over Pope Benedict's statements is troubling. Having read the speech, I acknowledge that he really put his foot in his mouth. He didn't do his homework for one: he makes a few factual errors egarding Islam. Second, he quotes an obscure medieval work that frankly is only marginally relevant to the content of his speech: so he could well have made his point without taking a rather ill-disguised swipe at Islam.

All that aside, however, his speech hardly warrants the sort of response that we have seen over the past week. Quoting an over-zealous medieval king, however ill-advised and imprudent this may have been, does not warrant the burning of churches and the murdering of a nun in Somalia. It is indeed ironic that these folks are protesting the implication that Islam is inherently violent with violence. Surely there is a better way to make your point.

This of course begs the question: Where have all the moderates gone? Over the past week or so, while I have heard many spokespersons for political and religious think tanks and scholars of religion and the Middle East condemn the Papal choice of quotes, I have yet to hear the unequivocal voice of moderate Islam calling for an end to the egregiously disproportionate response from the Muslim world.

There are moderates out there. But unfortunately, we barely ever hear from them. Amidst the calls for death to Pope and Christians, the withdrawal of diplomatic relations with the Vatican, and bigoted rhetoric that equals that of our now oft-referenced medieval friend, Manuel II, I see no group of moderate Muslims protesting vociferously for reasonable and open dialogue. There may be a feeble article here, a humble press-release there. But isn't it time that moderates, in all religions, claimed what is rightly theirs: a bigger stake in the political, theological and ethical discourse of our time? Isn't it time that moderates shake off their cloak of complacency and address the pressing and critical issues of our times with some sense of urgency and seriousness?