Brother Hash,
I am proud and happy for your feelings for fellow oppressed muslims of the Ummah. But please do remember that there are 1.7 billion of us Masha-Allah and each one of us is equal in the eyes of Allah (SWT) and as Muslims our first loyalty is for collective well being of the entire Ummah.
As muslims, our duty is to be examples for all human beings with not just words but our deeds. So generalizations and putting people in boxes, such as moderates or extremists is not in keeping with the humbleness we are required as Muslims and specially so, if we are talking about fellow muslims - it is tantamount to sectarianism. It is actually a tool used by the likes of Daniel Pipes to divide our ranks and sow division, if I may humbly remind.
Brother Imaad_udeen's love for his country of origin is natural, indeed our beloved prophet (SAWS) also loved Mecca and Arabia, if I am not wrong - this is not against Islam, but yes when we are faced with a situation where we have to choose, as Muslims, we must choose Islam and the Ummah as our first point of loyalty. As bearer's of the noblest of all faith Insha-Allah, we must be patient with him and humbly express our opinion. I believe he is new to our faith and he deserves our respect to have left the ways of his fore-fathers and accepting our Deen, Alhamdulillah. Many of us did not have to go through the troubles and transition that he had to go through.
About war, fighting and fighting back - our beloved prophet (SAWS) had started the genesis of an Ummah with himself only and today a quarter of humanity is within the Ummah Masha-Allah. In addition to being the last messenger from Allah (SWT), our prophet (SAWS) was also a great General and strategist. War and fighting is for winning, and one of the first strategy's of war is to know yourself and your enemy and not to start a battle if the enemy is stronger and if there is no chance of winning.
Also, if we look at human social evolution, we find today that most advanced countries are moving away from war and killing as a method of conflict resolution (since it now has diminishing returns), with the US being the only exception, this is because of a transitory few decades when the US finds itself as the lone super-power with no match in sight - but soon the US will also come in line with other nations and sanity will prevail.
Instead, most countries are now focused on turning their warfare in economic and business fields, which produces more return for the buck.
If I were a strategist for the Ummah, I would recommend all fruitless fighting to cease and instead channel our fighting energy on making us strong in other ways with education and human resource development. This way I believe we can advance the interest of the Ummah and ensure the well being of its 1.7 billion inhabitants, because that in itself is the ultimate goal of all so called fighting.
Much more than these so called fighting, a united Ummah can confront the injustice with so much more effectiveness, and do you think that these are just dreams from my insignificant little brain, isn't Unity of the Ummah one of the most important idea's promoted by our beloved prophet (SAWS) - please let me know your kind opinion on these.
My apologies, if I sound like I have lectured you, but you have seen, this is one of my habit.
