Another moderate Muslim voice could be heard in Iraq. On Friday Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the country’s top Shia Muslim cleric, condemned the publication of the cartoons, but added that militant Islamists were partly to blame for distorting the image of Islam. Ayatollah Sistani criticized Muslim extremists for distorting the view of Islam in the West through their violent actions. Ayatollah Sistani is one of the top 3 ayatollahs in Shiadom.
This is via the Brussels Journal. Go read the whole post. There are some promising developments among some Danish Muslims as well. You know…the ones who actually think of themselves as Danes.
Update:
This is not so good:
Meantime, Hamid Karzai of the now free Afghanistan demonstrates that he does not understand freedom.
“Any insult to the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) is an insult to more than 1bn Muslims and an act like this must never be allowed to be repeated,†said Hamid Karzai, Afghan president, strong western ally and moderate Muslim leader.
That doesn’t sound very moderate, Hamid. Thus has he signaled that the Afghan press is unlikely to be ever free and that Afghanis are unlikely ever to have freedom of speech … unless they exercise those rights to blood libel Jews and condemn Christians, of course.
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