Enlightened moderation is a term coined by a former Pakistani president,

Pervez Musharraf General Pervez Musharraf ( ur, , Parvez Muśharraf; born 11 August 1943) is a former Pakistani politician and four-star general of the Pakistan Army who became the tenth president of Pakistan after the successful military takeover of t ...

; it applies to practicing a

moderate Islam Moderate Islam and ''moderate Muslim'' are labels that are used within counterterrorism discourse as the complement of "Islamic extremism" and imply that supporting Islamic terrorism is the characteristic of a "radical" faction within Islam, and a ...

, as opposed to the interpretations of fundamentalist Islam. To think properly as to rationalize thoughts, to be on the positive side of life and to prefer optimism, the theory goes, is to be against extremism. The strategy of enlightened moderation was unveiled by Musharraf during the 2002 OIC Summit Conference in

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. Musharraf explained his position in an opinion piece that was published in various newspapers in 2004. His plan for enlightened moderation has two sides. It calls "for the Muslim world to shun militancy and extremism and adopt the path of socioeconomic uplift" and "for the West, and the United States in particular, to seek to resolve all political disputes with justice and to aid in the socioeconomic betterment of the deprived Muslim world".A Plea for Enlightened Moderation
/ref> Musharraf pointed out that moderation and enlightenment have been the traits of the Islamic world since the times of

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mo ...

. Musharraf wrote:

I say to my brother Muslims: The time for
renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
has come. The way forward is through enlightenment. We must concentrate on human resource development through the alleviation of poverty and through education, health care and social justice. If this is our direction, it cannot be achieved through confrontation. We must adopt a path of moderation and a conciliatory approach to fight the common belief that Islam is a religion of militancy in conflict with modernization, democracy and secularism. All this must be done with a realization that, in the world we live in, fairness does not always rule.

Criticism

Fundamentalist Islamic organizations have criticized Musharraf's vision of enlightened moderation. The Jamaat-e-Islami condemns it as a

neologism A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...

for

Westernization Westernization (or Westernisation), also Europeanisation or occidentalization (from the ''Occident''), is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in areas such as industry, technology, science, education, politics, econo ...

and

American imperialism American imperialism refers to the expansion of American political, economic, cultural, and media influence beyond the boundaries of the United States. Depending on the commentator, it may include imperialism through outright military conques ...

. Islam is innately a religion of enlightened moderation, they argue, and needs no Westernized amendments. Masooda Bano points out that the US is not likely to "suddenly metamorphose into a benevolent entity, which will 'resolve all political disputes with justice.'"Masooda Bano, "Unraveling 'Enlightened Moderation'", '' Al-Ahram'', 17–23 June 2004 ,Issue No. 695

References and notes

External links

Jamaat-e-Islami "“Enlightened Moderation” Or The New US ‘Religious Order’"
{{Pervez Musharraf Liberalism in Pakistan Pervez Musharraf Political terminology in Pakistan Liberal and progressive movements within Islam Pakistan studies Enlightenment philosophy Pakistan Movement

Criticism

References and notes

Further reading

External links