They embarked upon a campaign of interviews, speeches, and sermons that condemn al Qaeda's teachings and violence. This accelerated after 9/11 and a series of suicide bombings that ripped through Morocco's Muslim- and Jewish-owned restaurants, as well as a bombing at a Jewish community center on May 16, 2003, that left some 45 dead and more than 100 wounded.

They helped mobilize more than one million Moroccans to take to the streets of Casablanca in May 2003 to denounce radical Islamic terrorism--a march in which 1,000 Moroccan Jews openly participated and were warmly embraced by the Muslim community.

They launched a theological training program for Imams to teach them how to promote moderation within Islam, to teach them more about Western history and the importance of Christianity and Judaism to Western social and political development, and to help them identify and oppose extremist forces and trends within Islam. Participants take 32 hours of instruction per week for a full year. The first class of 210 just graduated, and included 55 women.

They helped organize the "World Congress of Rabbis and Imams for Peace" in Brussels (January 2005) and Seville (March 2006) where some 150 Muslim and Jewish leaders "sit beard to beard" to explore common ground, denounce extremists, and "write declarations of peace."

They launched an initiative to build a "bridge of friendship" to evangelical Christians in the U.S., including on-going dialogues with Richard Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals, Rob Schenck of the National Clergy Council, and Josh McDowell of Campus Crusade for Christ, among others. Abaddi and his colleagues have also invited pastors and evangelical business leaders to Morocco for conferences and high-level inter-faith talks, and have even helped organize a series of concerts in Marrakesh where Christian and Muslim rock bands perform together for thousands of Moroccan young people.

They published a book about the importance of encouraging religious freedom within Islam and even suggested that "Muslims have the right to change their religion" if they so desire.

Abaddi also confirmed rumors swirling about in the Arab press that his government is quietly laying the groundwork with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to hold a new round of high-level peace talks in the Kingdom in the near future. He noted that King Hassan II--the late-father of the current monarch--opened secret talks with the Israelis as far back as the early 1970s and that Morocco was the first Arab government after Egypt to welcome an Israeli Prime Minister for a public visit (Shimon Peres in July 1986).

"We need our people to know the real West...to understand that the West ain't no angel, but it ain't no demon either," Abaddi said, attempting a Western accent, at a private dinner in a Washington, D.C., suburb last week. "[This effort] is not a luxury. We are not being pressured to do it. We are trying to train responsible people to live in dangerous times."

"Our world is threatening to destroy itself," he noted, citing apocalyptic rhetoric coming out of Tehran, Iran's nuclear program, radical Islamic terrorism, AIDS, and severe global poverty. "Morocco can help bring about peace. I think the Moroccan model is practical and helpful. It communicates an entirely different concept of Islam to the rest of the world....I personally can't sit back and do nothing. After all, there is an Arab proverb that says, 'Don't be a mute Satan.' I feel compelled to do everything I can to make a better world."

Be sure to read all of Rosenberg's piece on this very different and radical vision that differs so greatly with what we hear coming from the Islamists. His closing paragraph speaks volumes toward where we all should be heading:

The world needs more people who dream "God-sized dreams," said Abaddi--dreams of peace and reconciliation, not just bigger houses and another Lexus. To that we should all say a hearty "Amen."

As for jihadists such as Osama bin Laden, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and their followers - unfortunately their "God-sized dreams" reflect allegiance to a God of their own creation - the power of money and violence under the guise of a pipe dream called "the Caliphate".

However, there are indeed - truly moderate Muslims. Here's to more of them speaking out against the jihadists and in favor of reform within Islam.