Posted on 08/19/2007 4:32:00 PM PDT by neverdem
Salman Rushdie, Thomas Friedman, Nicholas Kristof and Mansour al-Nogaidan are among the well-intentioned people who have called for an Islamic Reformation. They should be careful what they wish for.
The Protestant Reformation did precede the things these men admire about modernity in the West, including women's emancipation, political liberty, scientific breakthroughs, the wealth and opportunity created by the Industrial Revolution, and permission to think freely regarding God. But all this came later, and the Reformation was only part of what brought them about.
The Reformation was a time of intense focus on God and what He requires of people. As a movement, it was enthusiastic, narrow and far from tolerant. It and the Counter-Reformation brought two centuries of repression, war and massacre to the West. It's unlikely that anyone who lived through it would consider wishing a Reformation on Muslims.
And yet, even as some hope for such a turn of events -- presuming, it seems, a certain conclusion -- a Reformation is sweeping through the Muslim world. Westerners are generally aware that the Shiite and Sunni sects of Islam are struggling for dominance in Iraq. But more broadly, the words and doctrine promoted by the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis or Wahhabists are eerily similar to those of our 16th-century forebears.
Like the followers of Martin Luther and John Calvin, Islamic reformers reject the interpretations of generations of scholars in favor of seeking the word of God directly in scripture. Normative Islam follows one or another school of interpretation of scripture, known as a Madhab. Careful study leads students to understand that God's word is often nuanced. Nuance is not the stuff of reform. Salafi reformers argue that Muslims should ignore generations of sages, read the Koran and Hadith for themselves, and act on the truth they find. A...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Dangerous, considering some of the content in the koran.
At it's core, Islam was founded by a sand pirate, a caravan robber to indulged in murder, rape, and pedophila. For details see my FR homepage
The sooner they start their reformation, the sooner they can appreciate, rather than tear down, the benefits of a civilized society.
It's pretty good.
I read the entire article, neverdem, and think it is wishful thinking on the author’s part. She seems to think religious reform movements are predictable and that the analogy between the Reformation in Europe 400 years ago will proceed in Islam in mechanical fashion.
Her assumptions, which she does not fully explain, include one I am not convinced is accurate: that Islam and Christianity are similar enough and are morally equivalent.
I have it on good authority, from someone in the know on these things, that moslems are offended by talk of moderate/radical islam and reformation.
This woman is a moral idiot.
The protestants spread the word of Jesus Christ through preaching.
The Sons of Allah prefer teams of terrorists and suicide bombers to kill unsuspecting civilians going about their ordinary lives.
Yep, "eerily similar." What a fool.
Wahabism is infiltrating Britain. This is a frightening video. Watch it:
It is an extremly dangerous ideology. Liberals say extremists in Islam are like the KKK in the United States, a crazy minority. We have thousands if not millions of Wahabis in Saudi Arabia and hundreds of thousands of other extremists that just rallied for global Islamic rule a few weeks ago in Indonesia. Our Government refuses to protect us by not securing our borders and implementing wartime wiretapping regulations, amoung many other things. Democrats and liberals are endangering this country.
They're offended by everything under the sun. They need to be quarantined.
I believe this writer to be fundamentally in error regarding the miind of Martin Luther and his like-minded associates. The Roman Catholic priesthood and hierarchy were intensly focussed on requiring people to perform certain prescribed (by them) behaviors, claiming without scriptural warrant to be speaking for God in making their demands and claiming that salvation depended on good works.
The reformers, who did not seek to create a new church but only to purify and reform the one that existed and of which they were members, to direct it back to its scriptural foundations, were focussed instead on what God had already done, through Jesus Christ, to provide a path to salvation (and the one and only path authorized by He who designed and instituted it).
I thought Islamofascism WAS the reform movement?
Religious reformation is usually about getting back to the original message of the founder. Here’s a small sample...
Qur’an 4:115 “If anyone contradicts or opposes the Messenger [not Allah] after guidance has been conveyed to him, and follows a path other than the way, We shall burn him in Hell!”
Qur’an 9:71 “O Prophet, strive hard [fighting] against the unbelievers and the Hypocrites, and be harsh with them. Their abode is Hell, an evil refuge indeed.”
Qur’an 8:59 “The infidels should not think that they can get away from us. Prepare against them whatever arms and weaponry you can muster so that you may terrorize them.”
Qur’an 4:168 “Those who reject [Islamic] Faith, Allah will not forgive them nor guide them to any path except the way to Hell, to dwell therein forever. And this to Allah is easy.”
Yes, I did read the article. I just don’t believe it.
The world doesn’t need islam to reform, it needs islam to disappear.
“The sooner they start their reformation, the sooner they can appreciate, rather than tear down, the benefits of a civilized society.”
If they, and we, survive the events to follow. What is that thing about “be careful what you ask for, you might get it”?
I’m not one of the rabid anti-Muslims, but this lady makes a very good point.
he gets it. One further thing: the Reformation was also a political revolution which resulted in the subordinate of the Church in everyone of the new territorial states, Catholic as well as Protestant.
Be careful what you wish for...
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