The topic of Daniel Pipes and “Moderate Muslims” came up in the comments on one of Thursday night’s posts. I’m reproducing my response here, because I think the issue is an important one — the creation and maintenance of the Myth of the Moderate Muslim is a major strategic victory for the Great Jihad, and may end up being fatal for the anti-Islamization movement.

I don’t know specifically about Daniel Pipes’ organization (which is MEF, if I remember correctly), but some of the other think tanks that believe in the “Moderate Muslim” receive their major funding from organizations whose funding in turn relies on Gulf petrodollars. It takes some work to trace the money flow upstream to the source, but it can be done —— the connections are there in the public record.

ACT! For America recently discovered the virtues of the Moderate Muslim, which was a reversal of course for Brigitte Gabriel. It made me wonder if ACT had acquired a major new donor with a whiff of petroleum about him…

The purpose of funding these Counterjihad believers in “Moderate Muslims” is subtle and strategic. Many well-educated, well-meaning people in the West are desperate to believe that a form of Islam exists with which the West can co-exist peacefully. Daniel Pipes and Maajid Nawaz et al. offer them a straw that they can grasp. The ghastly, bloody alternative — which I consider the only alternative — is simply more than they can bear to contemplate.

The existence of these “Moderate” groups sucks energy away from the hardcore Counterjihad (which is where I reside). Money, time, and energy are spent searching for the elusive unicorn of Moderate Islam, reducing the resources available for the real civilizational struggle that lies ahead. Chasing the “Moderate Muslim” may delay our resistance to Islam long enough so that the “demographic jihad” will be able to realize the World Ummah before all the misguided optimists shake off their golden dreams and realize their error.

If Gates of Vienna ever starts promoting the virtues of the “Moderate Muslim”, you’ll know that some of those petrodollars have dropped into our basket. At that point you may assume we have sold out, and from then on would be well-advised to discount anything we say.