Battle for Islam, Tonight 8pm GMT BBC 2

[N.O.R.F]

Battle for Islam

 

If one of you hi-tec geeks can somehow download the programme and place onto whatever you place it on then let those of us not fortunate enough to have BBC 2 know were we can access it, please do so.

[-Serenity-]

Much Thanks. Its in half an hour

[shyhem]

Don't you guys have anything other than bbc.

[NGONGE]

Viewpoint: The global voices reclaiming Islam

 

By Ziauddin Sardar

Presenter, BBC Two's Battle for Islam

 

Ziauddin Sardar, travelling around several Muslim countries, finds that thinkers, activists, political leaders and ordinary Muslims across the globe are refusing to be defined by the ideology of violence and intolerance, but their responses are diverse.

 

This has been a terrible year to be a Muslim.

 

But, revolted by what is being perpetrated in the name of Islam, the Muslim world is bringing a whole range of new debates to the fore.

 

For decades the core debate in the Muslim world was about establishing an ideological "Islamic state" and returning to the Sharia, the historical body of Islamic law.

 

This debate, often led by so-called "Islamic movements", produced a narrow, intolerant, obscurantist, illiberal, brutal and confrontational interpretation of Islam. It is this interpretation that gave rise to what we now know as "Islamic fundamentalism".

 

But the fixed simplistics of fundamentalists never were the whole of the debate - even though the fundamentalists shout the loudest and dominate the globe through violent expression.

 

Sharia debate

 

Now, fundamentalism is being challenged by emerging and alternative visions of Islam, each taking shape in different ways in different countries.

 

Pakistan was founded as the first modern Islamic state. But it was only in 1978 under the military regime of General Zia ul Haq that Sharia was made the law of the land.

 

What followed was a series of cases where the implementation of the law acquired a notorious reputation for practical injustice, especially towards women.

 

And it is women who are really standing up to this law.

 

The essence of the argument against the Sharia is much more than the fact that its interpretation and application is illiberal and contrary to contemporary ideas of human rights.

 

The fundamentalist position is that the Koran is the source of all legislation in Islam and therefore the Sharia is an immutable body of sacred law.

 

It is this concept itself that is now being challenged.

 

Sharia, it is being widely argued, is not divine but a "jurists' law", that was formulated and socially constructed during the early phase of Islamic history.

 

It can be changed, modified and reformulated - in its entirety.

 

Thus the Sharia, as an inherited body of rulings and precedent, is being reclaimed in Pakistan.

 

Muslim scholars are demanding the same right as their forebears to investigate the sources for alternative interpretations, new ways of framing and operating precepts and law.

 

Activists' agenda

 

We can see this activism not just in Pakistan but also in Morocco.

 

In Morocco an entirely recast family law aspect of Sharia has been produced by Islamic scholars.

 

It was promulgated by the King in response to widespread public demonstrations by women and, when published, became an instant best-seller.

 

While it has its opponents, including women, its impeccable Islamic intellectual credentials - advancing the case for gender equality, poverty eradication, economic advancement and the development of free expression through civil society - are now the agenda of debate.

 

The irony is that neither Pakistan nor Morocco are democracies: one a thinly veiled military regime, the other a near-absolute monarchy.

 

But the activist proponents of this alternative interpretation of Islam are clear that it can never be fully realised without democracy; indeed that democracy is an essential hallmark of a genuine Islamic society.

 

Separation from state

 

Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population.

 

Eight years ago, it threw off 30 years of dictatorship backed by the military. Democracy has led to a great outpouring of new thinking.

 

Established organisations such as Mohammadiyah and new civic society organisations such as the Liberal Islam Network - which have followings in the tens of millions - are revising the conventional views of Islam and the state.

 

In seeking an interpretation of Islam that is both authentic and moderate, liberal, tolerant, open and democratic, they stress the importance of separation between religion and state.

 

And thus they come to a vision of modernity for Muslims that is rooted in, and inspired by, Islam, yet does not lay claim to being an infallible expression of religion and therefore closed to debate.

 

It is these agents of civil society that are setting the pace of change.

 

Diverse solutions

 

The demands they make on governments are producing a response. But it is no longer a case of seeking one solution.

 

There is a diversity of responses according to the particular circumstances of different countries, with different histories and different experiences of modernising and modernity.

 

The extremists have one all-embracing, all-constraining ideology.

 

But the reality of the Muslim world is its immense diversity.

 

The new ideas battling for the soul of Islam have a clear set of common principles but they are varied and must be heard in their own context and place.

 

A journey around the populous periphery of the Muslim world clearly demonstrates that the extremists are not only a minority but that the fossilised traditionalism from which they derive their legitimacy is also on the retreat.

 

There is a new air of optimism and confidence in many places that an Islam that is moderate, tolerant and democratic not only should - but will - actually be the future.

 

This new spirit, and the new ideas it is producing, is not tentative.

 

But it would be too soon to assert that the ideas are carrying all before them and have secured their dominance.

 

It is, however, beyond question that to understand the changes taking place in the Muslim world, and appreciate how Islam is being reformed, one has to listen to these voices from the edge.

 

Battle for Islam, presented by Ziauddin Sardar, will be broadcast on BBC Two at 2100 BST on Monday, 5 September, 2005.

 

Source

 

Have your say

[sheherazade]

Raf, you'll have to find a home-recording of the programme. I looked into it recently and the BBC does not sell tapes of programmes unless it's something that will make a lot of money(sit-coms etc.)

 

I saw it.

[NGONGE]

I didn’t watch the whole program. I only managed to catch the last bit in Morocco and then the Turkey part. I thought it was a very interesting and reform driven program. It’s quite amazing that these and the mad-people-killing-train-blowing-knowledge-lacking mullahs are the ones battling for the spirit of Islam. The rest of us are caught in the middle and are unsure of which way to head.

 

Some of us follow their passions and decide to follow the self-declared restorers of Islamic pride. Others follow their ‘logic’ (which in this case is not devoid of a little passion of its own) and join Mr Sardar and his ilk.

 

One group is trying to pull us all the way back to the dark ages and live their lives on dates and woollen clothes in the caves of Tora Bora. While the other is trying to push us into the 21st centaury and convince us that a glass of wine or two are not ‘really’ forbidden in Islam. And that we should move with the times and reinterpret our holy book and prophet's sunna in accordance to the changes of the time (this last argument, though I‘m slightly cautious about, I would still love to see them expand on)!

 

 

I personally believe that Islam needs to be reformed (for lack of a better word). I believe that it should not be allowed to be hijacked by neither the narrow-minded extremists nor the ‘open-minded’ liberals (again for lack of better labels). I don’t believe Islam to be as dark, aggressive and angry as some of the simpletons of Tora Bora make it sound. Its whole history has not been one of such intolerance and insularity. Islam tolerated and accepted all faiths in the past and was tolerated and accepted by many of those faiths in return.

 

I also don’t believe the ‘reforms’ of Mr Sardar and his supporters are acceptable or even possible. I do believe though that they’re asking the correct questions. I also believe that the challenges facing the Muslim world everyday are increasing and the legitimacy of Islam is being questioned by Muslims (and others) more severely than it ever has in the past. In general, the Muslim world seems to be very slow in reacting to such violent attacks. However, sooner or later, a reaction is needed and a proper defence/clarification/explanation/way out is needed. To ignore things and label both (aforementioned) groups as either ‘khawarij’ or ‘deviants’ is not enough. Silence here is not an option. Customary angry overreactions are also not the answer. Logical, rational and legitimate engagement is what is required. Reformers come and go, extremists come and go but when truth comes it never leaves. It’s not very likely that we’ll see the truth about Islam broadcast on the BBC soon.

 

PS

Shehrazad

Get with the times, woman. Home recordings are so last centaury. Now it's bit torrents all the way.

[sheherazade]

Have they reformed that too? Oh, I pine for the past when it was so simple I couldn't work out how to use the VCR. Help Raf out with your torrents of wisdom, do.

 

P.S: u missed out on Malaysia, Indonesia and Pakistan- a seeking of that middle ground you speak of. The Moroccan and Turkish slices of the pie were the least appealing to me.

[Viking]

NGONGE,

You have a lot of opinions for someone who hasn't watched the whole show I did and it was a completely wasted hour and a half. I still do not know what message the host was trying to convey.

 

He interviewed a Malaysian hairdresser who explained to the viewers her 'version' of Islam (not covering up in accordance with Islam except when praying), a Turkish model who [did bikini shoots etc. but] read verses of the Quran intermittently and was happy for the support she got from her agnostic father in pursuing her career and a number of Muslim, female human rights activists. The Malaysian activist group were even distributing bumper stickers to men which read something like One Wife, My Choice making it something to take pride in as opposed to polygamy.

 

He interviewed and showed a guard at a mosque for more than ten minutes but only showed Anwar Ibrahim for a few seconds. Public service? More like disservice!

[Us_Marines]

They shouldn't be reform.Islam is very simple religion.If you have question just go back to the Quran and don't ask any extrimist for answer. They need get raid of extrimist but not change islam. Extrimist are just male chuvist who think women are property they own and they purpose is to produce, but that is not what the Quran says.

i am very liberal but i still respect all religion and their followers.

[N.O.R.F]

Thanx for filling me in!

[N.O.R.F]

History's 100 Most Influential People

 

http://www.adherents.com/adh_influ.html