Around the Web - January 31st, 2011

The first month of 2011 is almost over.... Exiled Islamist Leader Returns to Tunisia. "...while Ennahdha was branded an Islamic terrorist group by Ben Ali, it is considered moderate by scholars." I remember talking to a gay friend after 9/11 about Islam, and he began to repeat the pablum about how most Muslims were moderate and tolerant. I had to disabuse him of the notion that they would be as tolerant of him as the Christians at the local Congregationalist church. One can be moderate, but if the scale is set at one end of the broader distribution, that moderation can be quite extreme from the vantage point of an outsider. So a recent survey of British Muslims found that 0 out of 500 would accede to the position that homosexuality was morally acceptable. Certainly within the set of 500 there were many moderates on the issue, but the center ...