The Trouble with Islam’s Reformists

[Rahima]

The Trouble with Islam’s Reformists

Amir Butler

Article ID: 1203 | 418 Reads

 

 

 

In the last three years, an assembly-line of self-styled reformists, both Muslim and non-Muslim, have paraded through the media competing to offer their sagely advice on how to solve the challenges facing Muslims. Although figures such as Tariq Ali, Irshad Manji or Ibn Warraq may differ in the details, these unsolicited sages all argue that the Muslim world must somehow reconcile its beliefs with “modernityâ€; a delicate euphemism for the adoption of the secular nostrums of the West and the forging of a “new Islam†more malleable to the progressive sensitivities of Western elites.

 

However, the problem with such proscriptions is that they naively assume a universal set of values and constructs which can be applied to any cultural or religious setting in order to usher in some vacuous notion of “modernityâ€. It is naive because secularism, the lynch-pin of their “modern polity†evolved in response to a uniquely European problem: the excesses of the Christian church in Medieval Europe and the view that the Church was a bulwark to social, scientific and cultural progress. Whilst the Islamic world may be undergoing its own dark ages now, history shows that its experience under religious rule has been the antithesis of European experience: the periods of theocratic Muslim rule, such as in Cordoba or Baghdad, were also marked as periods of social, technological and scientific advancement and achievement.

 

In fact, many of the foundations of the modern society owe themselves to Islamic contributions such as the invention of algebra, the establishment of the hospital, lighted cities, and the preservation of ancient Greek and Roman texts. It is ironic that the Muslim world contributed significantly to the development of the culture that would in the space of a few short centuries come to colonize it, in part because of the Muslim world’s abandonment of its faith.

 

Like many reformists, Irshad Manji claims that Muslims must “revive Islam’s tradition of independent reasoningâ€. In other words, Muslims must abandon their supposed orthodoxy and adapt their religion to suit the demands of the modern secular state. However, this is not a revival of Islam’s tradition of learning but a perversion of it. The great Islamic civilizations of the past made religion the guiding principle of the society: independent reasoning meant the application of religion to the world around them, not the modification and manipulation of religion to suit the ebbs and flows of the popular culture. In the proposed vacuum of scriptural authority, each Muslim will act according to his whims and desires: a guaranteed recipe for more extremism and more instability.

 

Which is more logical? To import a philosophy that is incongruous to Islam and Muslim culture, or to build on our past successes, adapting it to modern times, but within a well-understood framework of scholarly opinion and reasoning?

 

The social stagnation, political violence and overall instability that characterizes contemporary Islamic societies owe more to ignorance or a misguided interpretation of religion than Islam itself. The question is how do we resolve this problem: throw the baby out with the bathwater, or restore social and political structures that history has shown to be successful. The root cause of their problems is not simply a failure to reconcile Islam with homosexuality or ‘reproductive rights’, nor is it that they are adhering too closely to Islamic teachings. Rather, a dispassionate analysis dictates that Muslims need to practice and understand more of their faith; not march a spiritual death-march to secular humanism and moral relativism.

 

For some Western non-Muslims, the message of Islam’s “reformists†holds attraction on a number of levels: it reinforces the cultural hubris that Western values are the panacea for every ill; it offers a simplistic answer to a very complex problem; and it represents a message delivered by people who are palatable to the secular West, even if they hold little credibility in the Islamic circles they claim to influence. Irshad Manji is a textbook example of such a phenomena: as a lesbian activist she espouses a lifestyle that Muslims, like many Christians and Jews, disagree with, holds no formal qualification in Islam, yet purports to lecture Muslims as to how they can ‘reform’ whilst only ever addressing non-Muslim audiences or forums.

 

There is no doubt that the Islamic world faces challenges, but a unique civilization with a unique history and cultural context requires a unique solution. For Muslims who view the periods of theocratic rule as their “golden yearsâ€, the further abandonment of religion as the guiding principle of state and citizen are not seen as the solution, but the very essence of our problem.

[Haddad]

This isn't a bad article, but its title is misleading. No one can reform Islam, for Islam is complete and perfect. As for reforming Muslims to adapt to the "modern world", it means little. Muslims don't need reform. What is holding them from going back to their glorious past is their liberal and Western-dependent leaders. Without those leaders, and with an Islamic leadership, the state of Muslims in general and their transformation to a force to reckon with automates rapidly. That's what the West fears, and that's why it invests heavily in the current leaders.

[wind.talker]

Originally posted by Rahima:

...the periods of theocratic Muslim rule, such as in Cordoba or Baghdad, were also marked as periods of social, technological and scientific advancement and achievement.

 

In fact, many of the foundations of the modern society owe themselves to Islamic contributions such as the invention of algebra, the establishment of the hospital, lighted cities, and the preservation of ancient Greek and Roman texts. It is ironic that the Muslim world contributed significantly to the development of the culture that would in the space of a few short centuries come to colonize it, in part because of the Muslim world’s abandonment of its faith.

Laga bartay, laga badshe? They taught the Europeans how to best colonize them. And they saved Greek and Roman texts. For what purpose?

 

Interesting article overall. A bit misleading, as HADDAD has already mentioned.

[Rahima]

And they saved Greek and Roman texts. For what purpose?

To learn from, Islam does not object to learning positive matters from the kuffar. They understood the importance of these findings.

 

This isn't a bad article, but its title is misleading. No one can reform Islam, for Islam is complete and perfect.

Probably so, but as I understood it, the author was highlighting just that point, that Islam is complete and perfect and that these so-called reformists are nothing more than actors of no weight.

[Gabbal]

. In other words, Muslims must abandon their supposed orthodoxy and adapt their religion to suit the demands of the modern secular state.

That's the mentality of Jews. Christians and Jews have rewritten and done so many revisions to their books that today you can call the Bible and Torah completely man-made books. These are not the "people of the book" that the Quraan decribes so accurately as really they have no book!

 

Keep in mind that the Prophet's (SCW) message came down much latter than that of the prophet's Musa and Cisa (CS's). It was in the middle ages that the Christians and Jews completely adopted the policy of rewritting their holy books to fit their lifestyles. In contrast, we Muslims are at our middle ages and the mentality that lead to todays "King James Version" and "...... Version" is being planted in the heads of Muslims! Mark my words that soon you will hear calls or attempts by so-called "Muslims" to alter the Qur'aan!

 

It seems as though this is the starting of a battle we, the faithful, have to prepare for.

 

 

For some Western non-Muslims, the message of Islam’s “reformists†holds attraction on a number of levels: it reinforces the cultural hubris that Western values are the panacea for every ill; it offers a simplistic answer to a very complex problem; and it represents a message delivered by people who are palatable to the secular West, even if they hold little credibility in the Islamic circles they claim to influence. Irshad Manji is a textbook example of such a phenomena: as a lesbian activist she espouses a lifestyle that Muslims, like many Christians and Jews, disagree with, holds no formal qualification in Islam, yet purports to lecture Muslims as to how they can ‘reform’ whilst only ever addressing non-Muslim audiences or forums.

Read and analyze this paragraph carefully.