Sabrina Tavernise had an article in the New York Times this morning called "Turkish Schools offer Pakistan a gentler vision of Islam." It focused upon the "moderate Islam" emphasized by the schools of Fethullah Gülen, a Turk who has opened educational institutions across the world—including the former Soviet Union, the Balkans, and now, apparently, Pakistan and Nigeria. The point of the article appears to have been to offer a comparison between the approach to "Islam" of these schools with "Islam" in Pakistan (and worldwide?) more generally. Under one of the photographs in the article is the caption "Schools sow seeds of moderate Islam."

What exactly does the term "moderate Islam" mean in this context? Does it mean that the "default" Islam is one of extremism, while the Islam found in Turkey is somehow exceptional in that it is not violent or anti-western? Indeed, this concept of an exceptional "moderate Islam" is also a governing principle behind the approach to religion of the government of Tatarstan, an approach which has earned it praise in western media outlets.

Something else that I found interesting in Tavernise's article was the extent to which it soft-pedaled the hostility with which Gülen is viewed by the Turkish government and many "secular" Turks. Since 1998 Gülen has been living in the United States in unofficial exile, and he and his followers are viewed with extreme suspicion by most of the "secular" elite of Turkey. Yet in the Times article, this is referred to only obliquely, with the observation that "some Turks say Mr. Gulen uses the schools to advance his own political agenda."

Why the omission? It's hard to say. Perhaps Ms. Tavernese thought that making this point would be an unnecessary digression. Or perhaps discussing Mr. Gülen's persona non grata status in Turkey would have simply been too complicated for an audience used to hearing praise for Turkey's "moderate" (meaning "secular") approach to Islam. After all, if Gulen's "moderate Islam" is the "good" Islam in this story, then why would it create so much worry and fear in Turkey?

Maybe it's time to stop the search for a "moderate Islam" and instead come to the conclusion that all faiths are, for the most part, practiced in moderation. In Islam, as in other faiths, tolerance is the rule, not the exception.