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Conceptualizing the characteristics of moderate

Muslims: a systematic review

Radzuwan Ab Rashid , Syed Ali Fazal , Zulazhan Ab. Halim , Nasharudin Mat
Isa , Zuraidah Juliana Mohamad Yusoff , Razali Musa & Mohd Isa Hamzah

To cite this article: Radzuwan Ab Rashid , Syed Ali Fazal , Zulazhan Ab. Halim , Nasharudin
Mat Isa , Zuraidah Juliana Mohamad Yusoff , Razali Musa & Mohd Isa Hamzah (2020):
Conceptualizing the characteristics of moderate Muslims: a systematic review, Social Identities,
DOI: 10.1080/13504630.2020.1814720

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Published online: 04 Sep 2020.

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SOCIAL IDENTITIES
https://doi.org/10.1080/13504630.2020.1814720

Conceptualizing the characteristics of moderate Muslims:

a systematic review
Radzuwan Ab Rashid a, Syed Ali Fazalb, Zulazhan Ab. Halimc, Nasharudin Mat Isad,
Zuraidah Juliana Mohamad Yusoffd, Razali Musae and Mohd Isa Hamzahf
a
Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin, Faculty of Languages and Communication, Kuala Terengganu, United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; bCollege of Business Administration, International University
of Business Agriculture and Technology (IUBAT), Uttara, Bangladesh; cUniversiti Sultan Zainal Abidin - Kampus
Gong Badak, Faculty of Languages and Communication, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia; dWasatiyah Centre for
Peace, Kajang, Malaysia; eUniversiti Sultan Zainal Abidin - Kampus Gong Badak, Faculty of Contemporary
Islamic Studies, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia; fUniversiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Faculty of Education, Bangi,
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Following the 9/11 terror attacks, public discourse on Islam Received 12 February 2019
worldwide has been characterized by the distinction between Accepted 13 July 2020
radical and moderate Muslims. In this context, moderate Muslims
KEYWORDS
can play a significant role in international relations and promote Identities; moderate Muslims;
moderate practice in global politics. In order to address the acceptable Islam; systematic
conceptual ambiguities and enhance our understanding of review
acceptable Islam, this study undertook a critical review of the
term Moderate Muslim and the characteristics that could be
associated with this description. A systematic search of the
existing literature was conducted through the relevant scientific
databases of ‘Scopus’ and ‘Web of Science’ using the keywords:
‘moderate Muslim’, ‘moderate Islam’, and ‘acceptable Islam’. The
search resulted in 319 articles published between the years 2001
and 2018. Following a critical analysis, 29 publications were then
used to identify the characteristics of Moderate Muslims. The
findings revealed that practicing Acceptable Islam, with embedded
traits of non-violence and liberalism, followed by the belief in
democratic, secular, and pluralist methods coupled with a spirit of
tolerance is what makes (or at least is expected of) a Moderate
Muslim. It is hoped that apart from extending the theoretical body
of knowledge of this label, this study will also contribute to the
ongoing debate about what it means to be moderate, from
diverse perspectives adopted by various scholars.

Introduction
Segregating individuals into groups and questioning their loyalties based on their religion
potentially affects their sense of belonging and identity. Thanks to the much discussed and
problematic war against terror, moderate and radical Muslims are now a part of everyday
discourse (Cherney & Murphy, 2016; Gutkowski, 2015). Moderate Muslims are generally
defined as non-radical, acceptable actors who could be in partnership with governments,

CONTACT Radzuwan Ab Rashid radzuwanrashid@unisza.edu.my

© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 R. AB RASHID ET AL.

along with social and political groups, in their joint effort to counter radicalism (Abdel-
Fattah & Krayem, 2018; Scharbrodt, 2011). It is believed that moderation, though a
highly unstable category of practice because it lacks coherence (due to various percep-
tions of its meaning and content), stands at the heart of Islam and has the capacityto
reject the clash between religions and secular political ideologies while promoting the
view that Islam can peacefully co-exist alongside pluralist political systems (Achilov &
Sen, 2017; Gutkowski, 2015). According to Gutkowski (2015), critical accounts of moder-
ation which are theoretically and empirically sound can potentially contribute to a
range of practices such as global politics, global trade, other transnational activities, inter-
national law, foreign policies, state and private alliance building, negotiations, social con-
structivist literature, the diffusion of norms, democratization, and humanitarianism and
help reduce nuclear proliferation. In a separate study, Islam and Khatun (2015) stressed
that moderation, as a unique value, further helps us to make appropriate, balanced, and
moral behavioral judgments.
Though moderate Islam and Muslims have received much media and academic
attention, both in the West and East (Islam & Khatun, 2015), in terms of the large
Muslim communities which these terms are applied to, they are offensive and only help
to reproduce the perception that social context and identity are related realities, which
they constantly challenge and reject (Cherney & Murphy, 2016). According to Abdel-
Fattah and Krayem (2018), the much-hyped term moderate is simply an attempt to
silence the rebellious voices and thereby control the way acceptable forms of Islam are dis-
cussed and practiced. In a similar tone, Kassam (2015) stressed that post 9/11’s political,
social, and ideological tensions mean moderate Muslims can become ideologically accep-
table actors enabling states to render other aspects of the Muslim community invisible,
hence maintaining and reinforcing their acceptable, non-racist, and multicultural tolerant
credentials. Notwithstanding the above, Ahmad (2011) insists that moderation is neverthe-
less significant for Muslims as it clearly reveals the key characteristics of the Muslim
community and defines their roles and duties towards all of mankind.
Both radical and moderate are terms that are commonly employed to determine an
individual or groups’ position in relation to the existing economic, social, and political
systems or practices (Schwedler, 2011). The moderate Muslim label, as in the ongoing
agenda, only makes sense when contrasted with non-moderate or radical Islamists
(Modood & Ahmad, 2007), who are perceived as the greatest threats to democratic
political systems, both regionally and globally (Schwedler, 2011). Thus the moderate-
radical division remains problematic, as individuals or groups may hold a moderate ideo-
logical position on certain issues but radical views on others, which in recent years, has
drawn considerable scholarly attention attempts to distinguish moderates from radicals,
typically viewing moderates as supporters of democratic and liberal reforms using non-
violent means (Schwedler, 2011). Although some of the literature compares and contrasts
the two positions, the conceptual ambiguities of what being moderate or radical Muslims
means along with theoretical and empirical inadequacies in the body of knowledge
(Achilov & Sen, 2017; Gutkowski, 2015; Kassam, 2015). Such binary options are not
always relevant and can lead to wide and paradoxical implicit assumptions of what
could be regarded as acceptable Islam (Brown & Saeed, 2015; Cherney & Murphy, 2016;
Hamdi, 2013; Islam & Khatun, 2015). This calls for urgent research attention to look
carefully at the construction of moderate identity in the contemporary context (Gutkowski,
 SOCIAL IDENTITIES 3

2015; Kassam, 2015) and the parameters of this label that would be mature, nuanced, and
complex in nature. Moreover, politicians and the media, particularly in the West, consist-
ently call for Moderate Muslims to be more active in addressing the threats of radicalization
and terrorism (Cherney & Murphy, 2016) and raise the need to find out: Who are Moderate
Muslims? and How can we identify them? (Muravchik & Szrom, 2008). Furthermore, as the
failure to accept the assumed principles of moderation could make a Muslim labeled an
extremist, it is important and timely to describe the range of traits that have been ident-
ified as acceptable in the discourse of scholars. Considering the above, this study under-
took a critical review of the relevant literature in order to conceptualize the characteristics
of moderate Muslims.

The moderation of Islam and Muslims

Schwedler (2011) asserted that the concept of both radical and moderate could be traced
back to modernization theory, where binary terms such as technocrats and theocrats,
hard-liners and soft-liners, reformers and standpatters, reformers and conservatives, are
commonly found. This explains why existing studies note that radical and moderate
Islam are commonly presented as contrasts like: liberal and illiberal Islamism, fundamental-
ist and reformist Islam, civil Islam (Achilov & Sen, 2017; Hamdi, 2013) among others. Mod-
eration, in general, is a slippery concept that implies diverse mechanisms; such as
participation, autonomy, socioeconomic factors, inclusion, organizational interest, and
social learning (Islam & Khatun, 2015).
Thus in its essence, moderation seems to suggest a transformation from a relatively
conservative point of view towards a more liberal one that is tolerates alternative perspec-
tive (Kassam, 2015). In the present context, though Moderation reflects something nonvio-
lent and progressive, the concept lacks identifiable content and such labeling acts as a
discourse marker deployed by parties to build alliances, send political signals to relevant
constituencies and bridge political and normative actions which remain problematic in
nature (Gutkowski, 2015). Kassam (2015) interpreted moderation as pushing traditional
boundaries in order to reach a middle-ground leading towards a liberal path while remain-
ing committed to Islamic principles. According to Gutkowski (2015), the term moderation is
used in the Middle East to express political pragmatism, nonviolence, commitment to
democratic processes, social progressiveness, pluralist norms, increased tolerance, and
alliance with the West.
From an Islamic perspective, moderation or wasatiyyah (best option) could be coined as
justice or balance, merit or excellence, better or median (Islam & Khatun, 2015). Islamically,
it is perceived as a framework of moral values based on patience, humility, and tolerance,
all of which are very much part of the Qur’an (Holy Book of Islam) and therefore the idea of
moderation should not be identified as guidance applicable to Muslims alone (Mokhtar,
2018). According to Mokhtar (2018), moderation refers to the avoidance of extremes
and/or an excessively materialist approach of a solely commercially driven lifestyle, par-
ticularly in terms of an individual’s behavior or political opinions. Although Islam, in
general, is considered to be tolerant, moderate and compatible with democracy, so-
called Moderate Islam encompasses certain discursive and political constructions, as it is
not limited to the political scenario, but is extendable to temperate intellectual, moral,
legal, and behavioral approaches in all aspects of life (Islam & Khatun, 2015; Umar,
4 R. AB RASHID ET AL.

2016). Mutawali (2016) stresses moderate and Islam, when used together, form one
concept to avoid misunderstanding, wherein moderation does not reflect any lack of
moral virtue or clear stance in the context of religion; rather, it simply implies avoiding
any excessiveness associated with being a Muslim.

Moderate Islam
Moderate Islam is a paradigm supported by the majority of Islamic scholars as a unique
feature which is absent in other cultures or religions and reflects the framework delivered
to Muslims through the Qur’an, which mentions the importance of mankind achieving a
moral and economic balance as vicegerents of God on earth; it highlights those things
that preserve balance and provides the way to be steadfast, fair and straightforward in
nature (Mokhtar, 2018; Mutawali, 2016; Yaakub & Othman, 2016). The term, ‘moderate
Islam’ includes the compassion that Islam offers to human beings by promoting tolerance,
moderation, justice, and peaceful coexistence between and among people belonging to
different socio-cultural, racial, and ethno-religious backgrounds (Ali, 2018). According to
previous studies, moderate Islam refers to the middle position of balancing actions and
taking simple approaches that opposes the fanatical, the radical, or the extreme, along
with poor understanding of how to practice the teachings of Islam in every single are
of human life (e.g. Bakir & Othman, 2017; Islam & Khatun, 2015; Mutawali, 2016).
In similar vein, Somer (2007) noted that a moderate, a political, rational and peaceful
Islam that respects individualism, market-oriented economy, secular laws, and democratic
competition is definitely preferable to a form of Islam that is radical in nature, keen to
control the economy and the state by enforcing religious laws, and using violence.
Kamal (2017) further points out that moderate Islam promotes values such as objectivity,
tolerance in encountering diversity, inclusiveness in receiving something new or different,
logic and flexibility in understanding texts, relevance in interpreting texts, innovation in
daily life, and the value of social transformation. Perhaps this is why Umar (2016)
argued that it is highly important to endorse the notion of Moderate Islam from a political
perspective that puts religion into a liberal democratic discourse, driven by inter-related
international and domestic factors.

Moderate Muslims
The turn of events that brought Islam into the democratic discourse along with debates
regarding the challenges to democracy, the merits and risks of democratic inclusivity,
and the substance of democracy itself, also brought the distinction between Good
Muslims (Moderates who fit the profile of the liberal democratic discourse) and Bad
Muslims (Radicals who are against liberal democracy) (Schwedler, 2011; Umar, 2016). In
the view of Schwedler (2011), actors who support elite-led political transitions are often
presumed to be moderates, while others who put forth their revolutionary demands
(even with the broad support of the masses) are labeled radicals. Thus the term moderate
Muslim is employed to refer to Muslims who portrayed as anti-terrorist by implying they
have particular attitudes to the Islamic faith within the secular norms of the West
(Cherney & Murphy, 2016; Vidino, 2010). Achilov and Sen (2017) perceive moderate
Muslims as those who cooperate with non-Islamists and advocate a broader role of
 SOCIAL IDENTITIES 5

Islam and Shari’a in support of democratic participation, enacting laws developed from
considering the people’s wishes, a pluralist political system, wider civil and political
rights and balance of power, transparency, and accountability. Schwedler (2011) categor-
ized such moderates into three groups: (1) the behavioral moderates- those who have
abandoned radical tactics, adopted system-friendly behavior, and play by the rules; (2)
the ideological moderates- those who alter their behavior after changes in their beliefs;
and (3) the ideologically moderating individuals, where development takes place as com-
mitments and values of both individual Islamists and Islamic groups evolve over time.
Interestingly, Abdel-Fattah and Krayem (2018), criticizing the view that moderate
Muslims are followers of Islam robbed of their political rights, ability to disagree, and
resist. In agreement with this view, Kassam (2015) refers to moderate Muslims as familiar
strangers and suggests the term is used to hid the vocabulary of race and justify the
ongoing violence against the Muslim Other invisibly, which is important for the state’s
denial of making racially coded policies. The term has also been found to imply negative
meanings in larger Muslim communities as it reflects a certain level of compromise of
Islamic principles, which suggests that a moderate Muslim is less pious than others
(Brown & Saeed, 2015; Cherney & Murphy, 2016; Husain, 2010; Modood & Ahmad,
2007). In a related context Bale (2013) noted that the concept of moderate Muslims is
an erroneous assumption, as the fundamental beliefs of such moderates concur with
those of extremists in terms of Islamic injunctions, jihad, and the establishment of the cali-
phate. It is perceived that non-observing or semi-observing Muslims simply ignore but do
not reject the Islamic injunctions that form the core beliefs of their extremist counterparts.
In order to achieve a fair, civilized society, it is both timely and significant that Islam as a
universal guide for peace on earth is represented by moderate values and characteristics
which are open, democratic, and rational (Ali, 2018). Although limited, there are some
studies exploring the concept of Moderate Muslims from different perspectives. Vidino
(2010) found that that the term is inherently controversial. In an earlier study, Modood
and Ahmad (2007) explored the deeper sense of the concept from the different intellectual
views of multiculturalism of prominent Muslims, and noted that moderates as anti-terrorist
individuals (whether religiously or otherwise) oppose invoking Islam in political militant
rhetoric. In a more recent study, Brown and Saeed (2015) focused on Muslim female Uni-
versity students in the United Kingdom, who challenged the assumptions and risks associ-
ated with the term and were found to resist proving themselves to be moderate. On the
other hand, Cherney and Murphy (2016) reported that categorizing Muslims into extremists
or moderate is not done from a neutral perspective and Muslims in general reject and con-
stantly challenge the identification of the so-called Muslim norms that are associated with
such labels. It is evident from the above that no earlier attempt has been made to reach a
consensus regarding the characteristics of such Moderate Muslims who are crucial to the
global acceptance of Islam as a practice of peace. This along with the aforementioned gaps
and ambiguities in the existing literature motivated this review, which employed the
following research methods to achieve its objective.

Methods
A systematic review of literature is conducted to form the basis of new research, identify
gaps in existing studies and produce a summary of the existing key findings in a discipline.
6 R. AB RASHID ET AL.

This study used the systematic review approach with the research objective of identifying,
analyzing, and discussing the Moderate Muslim Characteristics. Hence, ‘Moderate
Muslims’, ‘Moderate Islam’, and ‘Acceptable Islam’ were the identified key terms used to
search the relevant literature within selected databases of ‘Scopus’ and the ‘Web of
Science’. In line with existing systematic reviews (Elisabeth et al., 2009; Ke, 2016; Tamilchel-
van & Rashid, 2017), the stages involved in the review process are described in the follow-
ing sections.

Inclusion criteria
Before initiating the literature search, the following inclusion filters were applied. Firstly, to
ensure content relevancy, it was decided that only publications that examined or
described moderate Muslims or moderate Islam should be consulted. Secondly, the years
of publication for the literature search were limited to 2001–2018 to get an overview of
the most recent (yet adequate) research. Finally, in terms of language, only publications
written in English were included in the search criteria.

Search strategy
In order to develop a search strategy that would suit the objective of this review, different
possible search terms were listed. After careful consideration, moderate Muslim, moderate
Islam and acceptable Islam were identified as the most effective keywords for this study.
The search terms were searched for in the titles, abstracts, and keywords in order of articles
to target the most appropriate publications, as suggested by Elisabeth et al. (2009), and
Marvel et al. (2016) in this case, with a clear focus on moderate Muslims.

Identification of relevant literature

The literature search was comprehensive within the scientific databases of Scopus, and
Web of Science (including Social Sciences Citation Index, Science Citation Index, Emerging
Sources Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index). Consistent with previous
reviews (e.g. Atuahene et al., 2018; Marvel et al., 2016), books, book sections, editorials,
teaching cases, teaching case notes, and commentaries were ignored so that the data
would contain only reviews, meta-analysis, other research articles, and conference pro-
ceedings. Before the final analysis, the downloaded literature was checked and duplicate
articles were removed.

Coding and analysis

When examining the literature, special attention was paid to articles that suggested the
possible components of an analytical framework to guide the category and comparative
aggregation analyses. Following previous systematic reviews (e.g. Ke, 2016; Marvel et al.,
2016), articles were coded and analyzed based on their focus or research objective,
theories, constructs, research methods, analyses, and significant findings relevant to the
present study. At this stage, the articles were carefully read and a critical analysis was
carried out using my self-devised review of the literature based on the description and
 SOCIAL IDENTITIES 7

evaluation of the key search words found in the publications. Initially, the abstracts of the
selected publications were screened thoroughly for significance. If the abstract could not
provide adequate information, the full content was read to decide if the publication met
the predetermined criteria for final synthesis, as recommended by Tamilchelvan and
Rashid (2017). Within each area of analysis, a variety of distinctions were made as the
researchers sought to categorize important aspects of each study. Given the ambiguity
of this process, each researcher separately coded and analyzed all possible areas of inves-
tigation. Later, differences were discussed until an agreement was reached on every
aspect.

Findings and discussions: conceptualizing moderate Muslims and their

traits
To unpack moderation conceptually and consider the much broader potential of moder-
ation as a theoretical starting point for liberalism, international relations and moderate
practice in global politics, this study engaged in a systematic reviewof the relevant litera-
ture. In an effort to reveal the patterns of moderate religious practices, the search methods
as discussed in the previous section resulted in 319 publications. After distilling the results
based on the aforementioned predetermined criteria, 29 publications based on both
Western (i.e. Australia, North America, and Europe) and Eastern (i.e. Middle East, Indonesia,
and Malaysia) perspectives were considered for the final synthesis. Most prior research
perceived moderation neither as unrestricted or total flexible in terms of religious rituals
and/or norms; rather, it reflected an Islam that possesses several resources that could
be employed to accommodate individual and civil freedom from oppression, provide
basic and wider political human rights, far from the ideal of dictatorial regimes, along
with a fair and just pluralist society reflected in the commitment to social justice free
from discrimination, corruption, and the abuse of power (e.g. Achilov & Sen, 2017;
Modood & Ahmad, 2007; Mutawali, 2016).
In line with Ahmad (2011), the results indicate that the term moderation, as generally
understood in contemporary discourse, is not exactly equal to what is meant by moder-
ation in the religious orthodox scripture (the Qur’an) that dates back over a thousand
years. In most scholarly discourse from the Western perspective, moderate Islamists are
perceived as those who do not use violence and work within an existing political
system, whereas in the Qur’an, moderation is an essential quality (involving the notions
of justice, balance, merit, excellence, improvement, and mediation) of reliable witnesses,
whose testimony can be accepted to preserve the religion intact and safe from falsification
of the text by extremists; falsification of authority by liars; and misinterpretation of its
meaning by the ignorant. In light of the existing studies (e.g. Somer, 2014) we find that
the present ‘moderate Muslim’ or ‘moderate Islam’ tags for Islamists who support
counter-extremism, portrays modest socio-religious behaviors and mild legal positions,
emerged in academia and media after the Iranian revolution in 1979, and were reinforced
further after the 9/11 tragedy.
For the purpose of the present study it can be surmised that moderation, in general, is
perceived as a process which is both implicit and explicit representing liberal views of indi-
vidual rights and democratic notions of tolerance, political pluralism and cooperation
(Cherney & Murphy, 2016). As for the characteristics of moderates, previous studies have
8 R. AB RASHID ET AL.

predominantly classified such Islamists as mostly young Muslim men and women who are
highly educated, active individuals within civil society, quite interested in politics with the
following aims: democratic governance and liberal reforms; support for civil liberties;
accommodation of both secular and Shari’a law; seeking gradual change while working
through and within legal entities and political systems; supportive of an electoral
system in which every party has an equal chance to compete; and a more open and
tolerant attitude towards alternative perspectives (Achilov & Sen, 2017; Clark, 2006;
Gutkowski, 2015; Hamdi, 2013; Kassam, 2015; Schwedler, 2011; Umar, 2016; White,
2012). It is clear that to be moderate within this definition, an individual must have a posi-
tive attitude to democracy and be open to the possibility that alternative perspectives are
valid (if not equal). However, mere behavior that appears to embrace democratic and
liberal norms of governance, such as participating in democratic processes or elections
(while secretly harboring radical political agendas) is not enough.

Nonviolent, democratic, and liberal

Interestingly, moderation (including the notions of moderate Muslim, Islamic moderation,
and moderate Islam) is context dependent and socially constructed (Islam & Khatun, 2015;
Somer, 2007). Muslims’ understanding (leading to their perspectives) of Islam (and life) is
certainly mediated by their interpretational lens and social conditions (Kassam, 2015).
However, moderation in Muslims who are religious but liberal can be reflected in their
willingness to reconcile faith with worldly opportunities and embrace modernity, democ-
racy, secularism, and a liberal global economy (Somer, 2007). Certain scholars supporting
this view point contend that to be moderate Muslims, individuals, representatives, and
Muslim organizations are required to reject global jihad, dissociate themselves explicitly
from terrorist activities and embrace a democratic and pluralistic political system
(Leiken & Brooke, 2007; Modood & Ahmad, 2007; Scharbrodt, 2011). Krebs (2008) further
suggests that Muslim moderates are those who are willing to uphold the rule of law
and condemn and foreswear violence, even if it advances political goals that they
largely share; they must seek peaceful conflict resolution.

Tolerance and support for human rights

In line with the above, Hamdi (2013) sees liberal Muslims as those who believe that the
states hould be managed according to the principles of modern democracy to avoid
any form of discrimination, and Islam can accommodate human rights, wherein most fun-
damental rights, such as religious freedom along with the right to convert must be recog-
nized. According to Umar (2016), Moderate Islam as a vehicle for encountering Islamic
radicalism, has characteristics such as human rights and tolerance at its center. Mutawali
(2016) extended this list and contended moderate Islam to be fair, dynamic, open,
balanced, tolerant, harmonious, and inclusive of all characteristics that can be used to
mediate between terrorism and radicalism in socio-religious life.
Moreover, several scholars stress that the progressive, normative, and dialogical charac-
teristics of moderates are reflected in their civility, reflexivity, dialogue, productive interac-
tional practices and tolerance of opposing viewpoints (Gutkowski, 2015). In particular,
Hamdi (2013) highlights that one of the basic characters of moderates is their tolerance
 SOCIAL IDENTITIES 9

and appreciation of various cultures and traditions, whether local, global or ancient.
Achilov and Sen (2017) noted that moderates are perceived to be more patient than rad-
icals, more willing to bide their time. Although they could share the radicals’ basic agenda,
they are more realistic and pragmatic regarding their ability to advance such an agenda
facing powerful oppositional forces.

The ‘hyphenated’ other

Accordingly, the moderate Muslim can be perceived as taking a reasoned and explicit
hybrid position, which could be sociologically defined as a ‘hyphenated identity’
(Modood & Ahmad, 2007). Thus ironically, Kassam (2015) identifies the good, moderate
Muslims as the media’s Muslim darlings for countering claims of racist policies while con-
tinuing to impose exclusionary action against extremists; they are individuals who are
committed to their faith without being overly zealous, but are also articulate, normal,
mature, professional, rational, modern, intelligent, and liberal, seeking seamlessly to inte-
grate their faith within the bounds of acceptability in a multicultural society. In a separate
study of moderate Muslim parents, Mah et al. (2011) defined the outcomes of successful
parenting as reflected by their children’s confidence in their Muslim identity; the internal-
ization of their faith; their educational achievements; being good models of Islam and able
to respectfully engage with others. According to Nasr (2005), Muslim democrats are those
who do not seek to enshrine Islam within politics; rather, they tend to pursue practical
electoral systems and stable governing bodies that can serve both collective and individ-
ual interests. In addition, the key principles advocated by moderate Muslims as universal
citizens include: a belief in checks and balances, the peaceful transfer of power, citizens’
participation, the neutrality of public authorities in dealing with multiple ethnic or religious
identities, and tolerance of diversity.

Implications and conclusion

The discourse of what moderate Muslims or acceptable Islam are continues to be an
ongoing debate. Identifying the characteristics of moderate Muslims is significant for
underpinning the line between those who should be expelled from and those who
should be permitted to stay within their political communities. As there are still conceptual
ambiguities between what makes a moderate or radical Muslim, this systematic review
attempts to address the gap in the literature to have a more nuanced understanding of
what is regarded as acceptable Islam globally by critically analyzing the existing literature
to conceptualize the attributes of a moderate Muslim. Our findings reveal that Moderate
Islam or Moderate Muslims is an on-going process of identity construction, in particular, an
Islamic identity (Umar, 2016) that could be a blue print for moral, social, economic, and
political reforms based on the teachings of the Islamic faith. The results portrayed that
practicing Acceptable Islam, with its embedded traits of non-violence and liberalism, fol-
lowed by belief in democratic and pluralist methods coupled with a spirit of tolerance is
what makes (or at least is expected to make) a Moderate Muslim.
Theoretically the concept of radical and moderate can be traced back to modernization
theory, where binaries such as technocrats and theocrats, hard-liners and soft-liners, refor-
mers and standpatters, reformers and conservatives, are commonly found (Schwedler,
10 R. AB RASHID ET AL.

2011). But more specifically, the findings of this review draw support (at least partially)
from resource mobilization theory, which suggests that individuals, such as moderate
Muslims, with more available resources like comparatively higher levels of education
and social acceptance, are more likely to support pro-democratic collective activism
(Achilov & Sen, 2017). In line with existing studies which were not part of present
dataset (Islam & Khatun, 2015), western scholars are found to be more concerned with
political agendas within the Muslim world, and associate Islamic moderation with liberal
secular norms, political pluralism, and democratic systems, and those who chose state
legitimacy over violence and allow some degree of cooperation, adaptation, and willing-
ness to compromise in upholding the practices of Western societies. On the other hand,
the Eastern origin studies of the publications analyzed focus on Islamic theology, belief
systems, ethics, politics, and legal positioning, and seem to concur with Akhmetova and
Jaafar’s (2020) suggestion that moderate Muslim encompasses characteristics such as
taking moderate actions in the light of Islamic teachings, tolerating different thoughts
and opinions, emphasizes the importance of dialogue, avoids radical actions, is accommo-
dating towards modern concepts, its rational thinking is based on divine revelation, inter-
preting texts from the Qur’an and Hadith in context, and engaging independent
reasoning.
Based on the multiple, converse, and diverse interpretations of Islam in reality (Kassam,
2015; Umar, 2016), we argue that most scholarly discourse occurs in particular contexts,
and while it reaffirms key norms within Muslim communities, it therefore cannot deliver
a complete understanding of Muslims’ representations, which in practice are fluid and
complex processes, far from the imaginary simplistic view of good or bad Muslims
(Hamdi, 2013; Kassam, 2015; Scharbrodt, 2011). Unfortunately, the present review suggests
that the moderate and/or extreme label is applied as a form of racial coding of its subjects
of discussion while upholding the Multicultural Tolerant image of its users (Cherney &
Murphy, 2016; Kassam, 2015). The so-called Moderate Muslims hence become representa-
tives of the type of Muslim that are not only proto-democratic but are also governable,
who do not rock the boat, accept limited reforms which protect the power bases of
elites and therefore can be encompassed within the state (Abdel-Fattah & Krayem,
2018; Schwedler, 2011). On the other side of the equation lie the radicals, representing Isla-
mists who are ready to use violence in order to achieve their goals, typically demanding
substantial systemic changes, strongly opposing the power configurations of the status
quo, and seeking to overthrow the existing political, economic, and social systems in
their entirety (Schwedler, 2011), which they feel unable to tolerate. It is further not
encouraging to report that Moderate Muslims, as children of the War against Terror, are
important merely because only they can serve as brokers forging links across political
and social borders, breaking barriers, and thusvlinking Western authorities to alienated
Muslim populations in Africa, Asia, along with the Muslim residents and citizens in
Western nations (Krebs, 2008).
The traits highlighted in this study somewhat reflect the gist of scholarly discourse in
regards to moderate Muslims, both from Western and Eastern perspectives, which may
not refer to an individual’s identity or perceptions of her/himself as a moderate. Moreover,
as the validity of these findings needs to be empirically tested using primary data sources,
we do not claim that the conceptualization captured by this study of secondary data
encapsulates the complexity of the label, Moderate Muslims. Nevertheless, we argue
 SOCIAL IDENTITIES 11

that the key characteristics identified in this study inform the conceptual ambiguity of
where the lines can be drawn between radical and moderate Muslims in theory and
pave way for future empirical research into the instrumentation of the construct, Moderate
Muslim. Based on the findings of this systematic review, it is recommended that in order to
find and define legitimate moderates; governments, legal authorities, and socio-develop-
mental organizations need to engage responsible Muslim leaders along with their commu-
nity members to actually consider their concerns and tolerate criticisms, rather than
imposing their own labels and character requirements. It could also be fruitful both for
encouraging Moderation among Muslims and support for the War on Terror if stakeholders
abandon binary labels, such as moderates and radicals entirely and instead consider
specific individual concerned; such as those of contextualists and legalists (in regards to
the interpretation of religious texts) or may be non-accommodationists and accommoda-
tionists (in relation to participation in state processes).
Considering moderation as taking a central position between a three-dimensional
situation in terms of attitude, behavior, action or discourse is obviously simple and
understandable. But, in the case of a tricky two-dimensional binary option where of
two choices one is good and one is bad, moderation would mean adopting the good
one. For example, between truth and false, taking the best of the two is moderation,
which is truth. Between two good things, moderation is choosing the better one;
however, between two things which are both bad, moderation is complying with the
less wicked one. As moderation is a continuously evolving concept, sensitive to volatile
social and political turmoil, future studies could therefore focus on the complexities
associated with this concept that need to be understood within a wider context that
accounts for regional variations in the light of multiple causally complex combinations
of competing conditions, as well as other factors, such as poverty or hostility. To
enhance our understanding of legitimate moderates, it could be also worthwhile exam-
ining how Muslims, as the subjects of such categorization, interpret this labeling and
what characteristics they perceive should be associated with the term, Moderate
Muslims. It would also be worth taking a quantitative approach towards conceptualizing
moderate Muslims and attempt to develop a valid instrument to measure this construct
and the characteristics associated with it. However, in the light of the frequent normative
and varied use of this term, researchers must employ caution to interpret what individual
scholars mean when referring to such labels and how they might function differently in
other contexts.

Acknowledgments
This work was supported fby Wasatiyah Centre for Peace under Grant No WCP-RES0062018.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Funding
This work was supported by Wasatiyah Centre for Peace under [grant number WCP-RES0062018].
12 R. AB RASHID ET AL.

ORCID
Radzuwan Ab Rashid http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1334-6268

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