On False Moderation

Everyone should read Paul Berman's most recent essay in The New Republic about how Islamist radicals are using the supposed crime of "blasphemy" to terrorize people in the Middle East and beyond.

In it he mentions Rached Ghannouchi, the leader of Tunisia's "moderate" Islamist party Ennahda.

By now everyone has noticed the fog of euphemism that has crept over the word "moderate" when applied to Islamist movements and leaders. A "moderate" is someone such as Rachid Ghannouchi, the Islamist...