MODERATE MUSLIMS MUST BATTLE EXTREMISM.

Byline: Rob Asghar 

THE BBC and European newspapers display Danish cartoons that depict Islam's prophet as a man of violence. Calling the cartoons intolerable lies, the prophet's loyalists in Palestinian territories wave guns and threaten innocent European civilians.

Who can save us from deadly ironies? For a long time, I was confident that Islam's moderate believers, found by the teeming millions from Indonesia to Pakistan to London to Los Angeles, would dampen the cultural war between East and West. Yet moderates and modernists have been invisible during this dark war's newest battle.

The signs, banners and chants in this city were disorienting: ``Free speech go to hell,'' ``Death to those who insult Islam'' and ``UK, you must pray, 7/7 is on its way'' (a threat to repeat the London bombings of last July).

While visiting London's Central Mosque in Regent's Park last Friday, I spoke to two moderate young men from Kosovo who said they planned not to attend any protests and that they would not defend the extravagant reactions of militants in the Middle East. ``It is ignorance that causes this,'' one sighed. But their opposition to Islamists' violent threats seemed to end with just a shrug.

Moderates comprise Islam's majority, yet they have been shy about taking command of their congregation. Moderates are by definition unwilling to be martyrs. Extremists are glad martyrs. On the rare occasions that moderates confront martyrs, martyrs scatter them easily.

While sympathizing with the plight of Muslim moderates in the West, we can offer up questions that only they can pose to their extremist kindred who also live in the West:

--Can you, the extremists, embrace Western laws that preserve a variety of viewpoints, including your own? Can you appreciate consistent rules for civil discourse, whether or not you comprise a majority within a nation?

--If you come to the West in search of more money despite the West's moral weakness, has not money become your god? And if so, don't you have to worry more about the destination of your own soul rather than about cartoons drawn by sinful Westerners?

--If you reserve the right to condemn homosexuals or Hindus, can't you accept others' right to question you or your faith?

--Are you willing to trust God to sort out on the Day of Judgment the fates of those who have offended him? Are you not a bit agnostic in taking divine matters into your own hands here in the West?

There are also questions that Muslim moderates in the West must ask of themselves:

--Far-right groups are gaining force: Last week a far-right British pol was acquitted of racial-hate charges for his comments against Islam, and he promised to heat up his rhetoric. Do you see how both Muslim and Western fanatics are seeking to polarize you while destroying the rich soul of your religion? Can you truly stay out of the fray?

--What rights are you willing to demand for yourselves? You shun Taliban reactionary lifestyles. Do you want to be able to take pictures of your children with your new Canon camera, even though fundamentalists claim that orthodox Islam forbids any imagery of humans or animals?

--Are you willing to live in a world of their design, in which you will be persecuted for your relative liberalism?

--Whose side will you choose when extremists continue to force your hand and the hand of Western governments? The Quran is clear that a good Christian or Jew will make it into heaven ahead of a bad professing Muslim. If push comes to shove, will you side with these good Christians and Jews? Your residence in the West seems to imply a ``yes,'' but words and actions must buttress this.

Every battered wife of inner strength at last pushes away the source of tyranny in her life. We can only hope that battered moderates do, too.