Can Islam Be Reformed?

Townhall.com ^ | August 2, 2011 | Dennis Prager

[Kaslin]

The question is in no way meant to be provocative, let alone insulting. But the world, including vast numbers of Muslims, needs this question answered.

After having studied Arabic at college and lectured on comparative religion for decades, and having devoted years to writing my upcoming book comparing American values with leftist and Islamist values, I have become convinced of two things regarding Islam: It must be reformed, and it can be reformed.

Both suppositions are highly controversial. Few believing Muslims think that Islam needs to be reformed; the suggestion would strike most religious Muslims as absurd, if not insulting and ultimately blasphemous. And it would strike many non-Muslim critics of Islam as naive. As Lord Cromer, British consul-general in Egypt from 1883 to 1907, put it in a quote known to all Western students of Islam, "Islam reformed is Islam no longer."

Let's deal first with the question of whether Islam needs reforming.

The case for it is compelling. Here are a few reasons:

-- Majority-Muslim and Islam-based countries are not, and have not been, free societies. According to the 2010 Freedom House "Freedom in the World" survey, of the world's 47 Muslim-majority countries, only two are free, 18 are partly free, and 27 are not free. There is no honest explanation for this nearly total absence of liberty in Muslim countries that does not reflect in some way on Islam.

-- Muslim treatment of Jews and Christians in places like medieval Spain was morally far superior to the treatment of non-Christians by European Christians during the same period. But in the modern period, nowhere that Islam has controlled has afforded non-Muslims anywhere near the equality that non-Christians have taken for granted in the Christian world.

-- There was a burst of intellectual and scientific creativity in the Muslim world for a few hundred years, but then the opponents of reason came to dominate Islam, and with it came a loss of scientific and intellectual curiosity.

How could it have been otherwise? The dominant Muslim view was that the natural world had no laws. Everything that occurred did so solely because Allah willed it. If an arrow hit its target, it was not because of the archer's ability or wind patterns or laws of physics; it was because Allah willed it.

According to a United Nations report written by Arab scholars, the Arab world's lack of interest in the non-Arab and non-Muslim worlds is so great that in any given year comparatively tiny Greece translates more books into Greek than all the Arab countries combined translate into Arabic.

-- Regarding women, one cannot name a culture or religion in which the status of women is as low as it is in many Muslim societies. Moreover, the status of women has actually declined in many Muslim societies in the present generation. For example, the veil is more common in Egypt today than it was a hundred years ago.

-- In nearly every Muslim country in which non-Muslims live (usually Christians) -- from Nigeria to Egypt to Iraq -- they suffer persecution.

-- A very small percentage of Muslims are terrorists. But nearly every international terrorist is Muslim. And according to every poll I have seen, at least 70 million of the world's more than a billion Muslims support Islamist actions and theology.

-- Every state that calls itself an Islamic Republic and rules according to Islamic law is a totalitarian state, and it is usually a bloodthirsty one. Saudi Arabia is an example of the first; Taliban Afghanistan, Islamist Iran and Islamist Sudan are examples of both.

So, yes, Islam needs to be reformed. This is no insult to Muslims. Judaism and Christianity have undergone major changes. And needed to.

Can Islam be reformed? I do not agree with Lord Cromer. I believe it can.

What is necessary is that Muslim reformers:

1. Honestly acknowledge the Muslim moral record -- i.e. the lack of liberty in Muslim nations, the killing of large numbers of non-Muslims, the low status of women, etc. This does not necessitate rejecting the Quran or Islam.

2. Eschew incorporating Sharia into state law and oppose the establishment of any Islamic theocracy (which is not, in any event, Quran-based, according to moderate Muslims).

3. Publicly and unambiguously condemn all violence in the name of Islam, including violence against Israel.

4. Express a deep appreciation of the moral record of America, including its superb treatment of both its Muslim citizens and Muslim immigrants, along with a complete rejection of the Islamist notion that America is hostile to Muslims.

5. Fully accept the existence of Israel as a Jewish state, and distance themselves from the Muslim/Arab obsession with Israel.

At this very moment, there are Muslim reformers who believe and express all five of these propositions.

Examples include University of Delaware Professor Muqtedar Khan, who runs www.ijtihad.com: "American Muslims really have no reason to feel they are victims of anything ... ." The Muslim American community is thriving, proof of "America's benevolence and tolerance of Islam."

Another is Ahmed al-Rahim, a professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia: "The most important message is that we condemn all kinds of hate speech, including anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism, and that we come out as boldly as possible against violence committed by Muslims in Iraq, in Israel ... . "

Regarding the Muslim obsession with Israel, Khan has written: "It is time the leaders of the American Muslim community woke up and realized that ... Islam is not about defeating Jews or conquering Jerusalem. It is about mercy, about virtue, about sacrifice and about duty. Above all, it is the pursuit of moral perfection."

Zainab Al-Suwaij, a refugee from Saddam Hussein's Iraq and executive director of the moderate American Islamic Congress, publicly declared that America "has given Iraqis the most precious gift any nation has ever given another -- the gift of democracy and the freedom to determine its own future."

And Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, a physician in Arizona whose parents fled Syria in the 1960s, is the founder and chairman of the board of the moderate American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD). A believing and practicing Muslim, Jasser advocates American values, promotes a Quran-based life to be practiced by the individual Muslim and never imposed by the state. He is courageous in confronting the Islamist Muslim groups that the mainstream media in the Western world have promoted to appear as the spokesmen for Western Muslims.

As Jasser says of organizations such as CAIR and other so-called Muslim civil rights organizations, "There was more concern with hate crimes against Muslims, which I think were relatively low; there was more focus on that than actually looking at the violence and the hate speech that has been committed in the name of Islam."

Islam is too important to deny its need to reform. And it is too important to deny its ability to ever reform.

And if it does reform, Muslims who have embraced America and American values will lead the way.

[Charlespg]

Can Islam Be Reformed?

No

[Ernie Kaputnik]

“Can Islam Be Reformed?”

Not without a few strategically placed nuclear warheads. The only thing Islamofascists respect is violence. Their faith teaches them this. (I dare anybody to prove me wrong.) The only way to convince them of their folly is to subject them to the wrath of god.

Israel understands this fact better than the anybody. It's a miracle that Israel hasn't turned Iran, Syria, Egypt, and the West Bank into a radioactive sandbox. Israel has shown tremendous and unbelievable restraint in not laying waste to their enemies.

And yet, we have President Mawgli (and his wife “Balou the Bear”} telling Israel to drop its pants and bend over.

Just my opinion.

[Da Coyote]

No to the Nth power.

Where N is a very large number.

It is a corrupt, alien infection on human brains and should be treated as such.

[Rummyfan]

NO.

[Puddleglum]

I think modern Islamic fundamentalism is feeding mostly on post-colonial nationalism, which in turn is riding whatever horse will take it the farthest - in this case, radical Islam. It is a marriage of convenience but one that will not be easy to annul - one party will not want to let the other leave - one party is expoloiting the other to try to establish Pan-Arab hegemony.

[Oratam]

A part of believes the elites think they can reform Islam through unrestricted moslem immigration into the west. As if exposure to our easy-going ways would have any effect on so insular a people.

[mosesdapoet]

Prager is an intersting guy but his “happiness hour” segment has me reaching for the dial. Likewise Catholic clergy who refuse to discuss the subjet. Both certainly the latter do not bring up Gods Gift To Mankind free will
http://www.theusmat.com/islamandfreewill.htm

[Wyatt's Torch]

Exactly correct. Amen.

[Elendur]

Can Islam be reformed? I do not agree with Lord Cromer. I believe it can.

Islam can be reformed if Muslims are willing to re-write their holy book.
///
it is IMPOSSIBLE to reform Islam.
the Quran CANNOT be rewritten.
it was NOT written by men. not even by inspired men.

it is LITERALLY the words of Allah himself.
to rewrite a single word, is blasphemy!!!

ANY Imam, Sunni OR Shia, can tell you that.
Prager FUNDAMENTALLY doesn’t understand Islam.

...and Fred Hayek and Steve Van Doorn are VERY correct. great “muslim” thinkers, were almost always MINO’s. often converts. revisionists have made Spain what it was not.
Prager has some false statements, and taquiyaa, and outright muslims propaganda in his “reasons”.

[nuconvert]

There are muslims who believe it can be reformed. They already practice a reformed version of it themselves.
So, the answer is yes.

[Little Ray]

You can’t “reform” Islam.

Every word in the Koran was “dictated” to Mohammed by “Allah” (more likely by a demon). Changing even a single word or denying a single tenet is heresy punishable by death. Even the language is specified - Allah speaks Arabic; the only valid Korans are in Arabic. That doesn’t leave much room for “reform.”

I would as soon try “reforming” the human-sacrificing, cannibalistic Aztecs.

[Travis McGee]

And a snowball could remain frozen in hell.

[BigFinn]

Absolutely NO. In deeper study, you would realize it is a religion that is actually a morphing of a former Babylonian religious system that is against the Creator itself. It is from the beginning. It is Nimrod. It is the Tower of Babel. It is what the Bible calls “Mystery Babylon”. It is the worship of idols, it is the worship of the ruler of this present world, it is the worship of non other than Satan/Lucifer/Devil (whatever you want to call it.). Jesus said.. “by their fruits you will know them”. Boy, was He ever spot on. Islam’s fruits are displayed for all to see. Islam is ungodly, unholy and antichrist. The Bible also tells us, both OT and NT that it will be totally destroyed and His Kingdom will come. We are seeing that unfold as foretold. God tells us the end from the beginning in His word... so that you might believe.

[Travis McGee]

Muslims CAN NOT “rewrite” the koran. They believe it is literally the word of god, directly from god. Every letter.

In fact, muslims believe the “real” koran sits on a table in heaven, and god dictated it directly to mohammed.

So no re-writing is possible, not even one paragraph. Muslim believers would brand as an apostate and kill any muslim who even suggested rewriting one line of the koran.

[Travis McGee]

There are muslims who believe it can be reformed. They already practice a reformed version of it themselves. So, the answer is yes.

Ridiculous. Muslims in private may do as they wish. But if they even suggested "reforming" islam they would be murdered.

I'm sure there were millions of peace-loving Germans in Germany in 1937. They had zero influence on events, because they had no voice.

That is the position of peace-loving muslims today.

[Elendur]

yes. true. and there are Catholics who have reformed the Catholic church, and support abortion and ordain women priests.
...they are not considered Catholics by anyone inside the Church, and probably qualify as ex-communicated heretics.

1.5 billion Muslims, and EVERY Imam i know, would call the “muslims” you mention, “apostates”.

...and we all know the penalty for that in Islam...

[Cronos]

Islam has been re-formed. in the 1700s Wahab came and returned Islam to the blood-thirstiness of the 600s and 700s. the Wahabbis (Saudi Arabia) led to the Moslem Brotherhood and AlQaeda

Note that any reformation will be an increase in fundamentalism

[Redleg Duke]

With a few judiciously placed nucs, there is a possibility.

[nuconvert]

“But if they even suggested “reforming” islam they would be murdered.”

Obviously the people mentioned in the article are still alive. And there are many others not mentioned.
A recognized reform obviously isn’t going to happen overnight, and will get people killed.
That’s part of the evolution of a religion.

[B4Ranch]

Daddy, please tell me why?

A young Arab boy asks his father, "What is that weird hat you are wearing?"

The father said, "Why, it's a 'chechia' because in the desert it protects our heads from the sun."

"And what is this type of clothing that you are wearing?" asked the young man.

"It's a 'djbellah' because in the desert it is very hot and it protects the body." said the father.

The son asked, "And what about those ugly shoes on your feet?

His father replied, "These are 'babouches", which keep us from burning our feet in the desert."

"Tell me," added the boy.

"Yes, my son?"

"Why are you living in Dearborn , Michigan and still wearing all this s***?"