By Living Shari`ah Staff

Apr. 18, 2007

In  March, the RAND Corporation issued a 217-page report titled "Building Moderate Muslim Networks." In this report, the American NGO, which is nevertheless closely tied to the US air force,  set up a four-point criteria that would be used by the US Administration and other parties to assess Muslim partners. The criteria allegedly define the characteristics that should be available in Muslim individuals and organizations in order to qualify as "moderate" before the eyes of the authors of the report. The report also defined 11 questions that would be used to examine the applicability of the criteria or part of it with regard to the interviewee's convictions.

This attempt represents the latest by US institutions to interfere in the affairs of the Muslim world. Since former US secretary of state Colin Powell's Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) was launched in 2002, several documents and conferences have been conducted under the title of "reform" in the Middle East. Many Muslim scholars and intellectuals see this particular attempt as a transgression on the rights of Muslims to decide on their own independent criteria for "moderation" that stems from Shari`ah (Islamic Law) guidelines.

Therefore, IslamOnline.net sees it fit to present in this folder the views and comments of a number of prominent Muslim scholars and intellectuals, both from within the Muslim world and from Western countries about the criteria in the RAND report.