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.

[Elendur]

I have gotten to know one a bit and based on my very small sample size (her circle of co-religionists) I believe they are clueless. They could read an article like this and not get it until it is too late (the radicals take over).
///
good point. MANY Muslims, have NEVER read the Quran !
they don’t know their own religion.
(same true with many “christians” of course.)

this also explains “sudden jihad syndrome”, and why the smart college educated muslims who have studied Islam the MOST, often become terrorists.
they simply are doing what their God TELLS them to in the Quran. (to disobey a direct command of God?)

i told a “moderate” Imam, that it seemed to me, that bin Laden was NOT “misunderstanding” Islam.
the Imam told me, to my surprise, that i was correct.
bin Laden DID understand Islam correctly...

also, the Quran SPECIFICIALLY and CLEARLY forbids a Muslim to even be friends with a non-Muslim. so the one you are talking to, clearly doesn’t know her own religion.

[Cronos]

thank you. Incidently, other empires that stretched across continents also caused the merging of ideas -- the Mongol empire merged Chinese, India, Arab, Turkic, Slavic etc. thoughts and had a positive result.

so too did the Assyrian, Persian, Roman, etc. Empires

[Cronos]

and remember that that reformation was a return to fundamentalism, to puritanism. The Islamics have done this in the form of Wahabbism and the Salafis

[stevie_d_64]

You know, I almost thought you might have stayed up too late last night watching Jay Leno or something...hehe

Good thing I practice “safe” FReeping...

I do not drink (anything) while parusing these threads...Not even the titles...;-)

[Elendur]

perhaps we should be very suspicious of ALL MUSLIMS in this country.
///
actually, Islam should be banned entirely.
as you said, by definition, they CANNOT accept a non-Sharia government. so Islam is seditious by it’s own words.

[dagogo redux]

Can cancer be reformed?

[nuconvert]

I didn’t say those people calling for reform weren’t threatened. They are and publicly speak of it. It’s not a secret.
Yet they are willing to endure the threats & possible harm to themselves & family in order to call for reform.
Those people should be recognized for their work not only by others who are muslim & agree with them, but by non-muslims, too.

[JayAr36]

I agree, Muslims are not here for any other reason than to take over this country. All that needs to be done is to refer to Lebenon. History has provided the answer all one ahe to do is review it.

[raygunfan]

yeah, meanwhile, back to Realityville....

[AustinBill]

No, the reformation was really about secularizing political power. In pre-reformation Christianity the Church and State were essentially one (same as it true for Islam today). After the reformation political power was essentially secular across all branches of Christianity (including Catholicism) even though it took a further century for this transition to be complete. This is precisely the course Islam must follow if it is to be reformed. It is arguable that such a reformation is happening today, but like the Christian reformation the process is slow and not without violence.

[raygunfan]

yeah, meanwhile, back to Realityville....

[Jack Hammer]

A writer kidding himself. Period.

[Impy]

Can communism be reformed?

Can the Democrats?

Pedophiles?

[Impy]

Meant to ping you to.

[B4Ranch]

A Short Course on Shariah & the Muslim Brotherhood

1. What Is Shariah?

2. How Does Shariah Define Jihad?

3. ‘Civilization Jihad’ – the Muslim Brotherhood’s Potent Weapon

4. True Lies – the Paradox of Debating Shariah

5. Taqiyya – A Concept of Deceit that Security Professionals Must Know

6. Slander – How it is Used and Abused Under Shariah

7. How Shariah ‘Blasphemy’ Laws are Being Imposed On Us

8. What is the Muslim Brotherhood and How Does it Operate?

9. Genesis of the Muslim Brotherhood

10. Movement of the Muslim Brotherhood into the West

11. The Muslim Brotherhood’s Westward Infiltration

12. The Muslim Brotherhood in America

13. The Holy Land Trial: On the Trail of the Muslim Brotherhood

14. The Muslim Brotherhood’s ‘Strategic Plan’

15. Penetration of the US Government: A Case Study

16. Mapping the Muslim Brotherhood in America

17. Who’s Who in the American Muslim Brotherhood

[Cronos]

In pre-reformation Christianity the Church and State were essentially one (same as it true for Islam today)

That's not true.

In pre-reformation Christianity there were two centres of power -- Church and State and they fought each other. Read up on the Guelphs versus the Ghibellines

Also note that in Western europe the Church was separated from the secular authorities by the fall of Rome in the 400s. Then there were Goths, Lombards, Franks etc. Once the Pope was even carried off to Avignon and the centre was moved there.

So, there was a separation of Church and state -- not as much as today, which one can argue has gone too much the other way, witness "gay marriage" etc.

In the case of Islam too there is a separation of Mosque and state ever since the fall of the Caliphate. the Caliph embodied secular and spiritual power in one person that was never in the christian world

Since the fall of the Caliphate in 1918, only in Iran has there been a merging.

In Saudi Arabia the Sauds are deeply tied in with the Wahabs and probably close to that merge but not completely.

In the case of other Moslem states it is not merged to the extent that they are one and the same.

[Cronos]

Post the reformation, I would argue that religion came to dominate politics even more strongly

Take Oliver Cromwell's case or any of the Lutheran princes in Northern Germany or Scandanavia or the Catholics in Spain or Calvinists in Geneva and the Netherlands.

[Cronos]

my apologies — I meant to say “not completely accurate” — I did not want to imply that you were false in any way as a person

[OB1kNOb]

Only Jesus can reform Islam (not Islam’s fake one, but the REAL Son of God).

[onedoug]

The question will become, can we reform within Islam?