Let me ask you this....
If there is a "peaceful" interpretation, how do we make it not just the majority opinion, but have it enforced internally by Muslim nations?
There's no real way
WE can
make it happen. The portion of the world where the majority of the religion is found is years and years behind other portions of the world in advancement and while modern technology is pushing that advancement ahead faster its still going to take time. Christianity, for all the good it does now, unquestionably had a time where it had numerous black eyes as well. Western society through enlightened thinkers, good economies, and various world events has had a chance to grow.
For example, look at the difference between the majority of 2nd or greater generation muslims in America and compare them to Muslims in say Syria. There is not a person on this board that can tell me with a straight face that when you take a random 100 people from both those areas that they're views on the Muslims faith, their feelings towards America and the West, their views on human rights and womens rights, and other such things are going to be similar between the majority of both groups. Even the "crazy" muslims that pop up in America seem to be people who are not 2nd or greater generation western muslims or fresh converts who likely are converting for questionable reasons. This generally tells me that this is much less to do with the religion itself and much more to do with the society and culture that said religion is primarily being bred in with regards to the middle east and the pockets of various countries where 1st generation immigrants form a significantly large centralized and rather isolated community.
Time is going to be needed, further encroachment of western values and ideals into the middle east is needed (look at the Muslim youth in Iran for instance), more and more 2nd/3rd/4th generation muslims coming into the fold and rising into important positions within the faith...these things will help to continue to push the moderation.
However, there's little we can do to force or "make" these changes happen other than refrain from ostracizing those that actually ARE moderate and ARE pushing for a modernization and moderation of the religion by decrying all within their faith as evil, wrong, and worthy of illegalization.
We have pushed democratically structured governments across the world as the system of government that gives the most freedom and protects the rights of the individual. But that creates a problem in the ME. The people are tribal. Power and control is concentrated in the heads of the families and the tribes. Since these positions are not voted on and arrived at democratically, voting for a candidate or a law undermines the traditional power structure. We found that out. Unless you destroy the culture and the tribal structure, you can't turn them into working democracies.
They are hardly the first people to have a structure set up where families rule and individuals rule and the people serve. The west had this as well. In general however when you GIVE people democracy rather than aid the people actually actively working towards freedom then you're not going to have the same success because such freedom is not earned nor struggled for and thus is immediately taken for a granted.
This is much like a kid in college. In general those that work, taking summer and night jobs, applying for scholarships, saving money while bypassing luxuries are going to be more likely to actually concentrate in class and strive to do well in college even if their normal nature would push them to want to party and good off. Its this way because they actually exerted their own effort to get what they wanted and as such really appreciate what they're getting and are even more vested in not screwing it up. Meanwhile, those that simply have all their college paid for are far more likely to skip classes, goof off, and not do as well if not get kicked out.
Is this the case for every person every time? Absolutely not, there's exceptions...perhaps many exceptions...to both those. But in a general sense, the first group of people are more likely to do better in the long run with regards to their effort put into college then the second group.
Its that first group too that can benefit at times that, as they get close but aren't quite there, can be given a small boost...like a few thousand dollar gift...as acknowledgement at the end of their hard work and HELPING them get what THEY worked for rather than GIVING them what you feel like they should simply have.
This is one of my issues with the Obama administration and as you ask me what we can do, I think one of the things we COULD'VE done was give more vocal, diplomatic, and underground support to the Green movement in Iran recently. There you had youths, much more westernized youths, that in general were more into equal human rights then their previous generation (even if they weren't perfect with it, they were an improvement) that were actively making that struggle, working at it themselves. They were that kid that was working summer and night jobs, putting in for tuition, and in the end was still a few thousand short. They were the kind that just needed that little extra boost, and who knows what heights they could've reached........
Instead they were left to flounder. Now hopefully, like the college analogy, they take the time to work a bit more, save up a bit more, and then the next year when its time to apply they go at it again. But their chance could also have passed by already, and that's a huge failure on the part of the west.
Ultimately, there's nothing we can do to FORCE or MAKE Islam become more modernized and more moderated...but we can help by not ostracizing those that are seeking to do that and dealing with the religion realistically and addressing the culture and societal issues that allow people to USE the religion for ill purposes...as Christianity was USED to murder "witches" and "heritics" and destroy scientific evidence before...rather than simply focusing all the hatred on the "wrongness" of the religion in and of itself.
Let's discuss the topic and not the members.
