Where are the moderate Muslims?

I leave the book review section of our Sunday paper in my throne-room and read it during the week, so I didn't see this till today.

A British-born, U.S.-educated Muslim writes about the two years she spent practicing medicine in Saudi Arabia:

Dr. Qanta Ahmed’s journey into the heart of Islam began as a spur-of-the-moment decision to practice medicine in Saudi Arabia.

Despite misgivings about going to a nation where women — even women doctors — can be treated as if they are invisible, the now 40-year-old assistant professor at the Medical University of South Carolina says she took a chance and ended up staying there for two years.

Reflecting on her experiences several years later, she sees her memoir, “In the Land of Invisible Women,” as part of a needed “jihad of the pen” by articulate, moderate Muslims.

[...]

Ahmed, who is of Pakistani descent, was born in Britain and had advanced medical training in the United States.

A decade ago, after establishing herself as a pulmonologist and sleep specialist, she had to decide about her future when her visa to practice medicine in the United States expired. She wanted to practice in the Middle East, but she told a recruiter she would go anywhere but Saudi Arabia.

But then came an offer to practice medicine in a modern hospital drawing patients from all of Saudi Arabia. She took it, despite worries about living in a land of strict religious rules.

“ ‘What’s a year?’ I remembered thinking to myself, as I had signed the contract recklessly, flicking through pages ignoring bold capitals announcing the death penalty,” she writes. “In a thoughtless flourish I found myself now subject to the laws of Saudi Arabia, decapitation included.”

In Saudi Arabia, she found a land with tremendous wealth, but one where women remain largely invisible. Women must, in public, be shrouded in an abbayah, a flowing robe. Women are not allowed to drive and must have a male relative or guardian’s permission to travel.

Ahmed stayed in Saudi Arabia from 1999 through 2001, leaving in the months after the 2001 terrorist attacks. She writes of her anger in seeing trained physicians laughing and others buying cakes to celebrate the news of the Sept. 11 attacks.

In Islam now, she says, “you see so very few articulate, moderate voices coming out. Where are the movies? Where is the music? Where is the poetry? Where are the books to counteract some of this (violent) ideology?”

Perhaps they're too busy baking cakes to celebrate the next terrorist attack.

PS Ahmed doesn't say why she decided to practice medicine in Saudi Arabia rather than return to the UK. Maybe that's because she considered practicing medicine in Britain's National Health System even worse than being decapitated for not wearing an abbayah.