From Glenn Greenwald (via Andrew Sullivan):
Just to underscore how mild and mainstream were Nasr’s firing comments, consider this 2002 column from ultimate establishment centrist David Ignatius, expressing “sincere respect for Fadlallah’s intellect and passion; he is one of the few Muslim clerics who recognize that there is an urgent need for Islam to find a better accommodation with the West”; this Economist editorial on Fadlallah’s moderating and progressive influence in the Middle East; and even this lament from David Schenker, a senior fellow at the neoconservative Washington Institute for Near Policy, who praised Fadlallah as “the most credible moral, political, and theological alternative to Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite militia,” arguing that the U.S. will regret his passing.
