{"id":97672,"date":"2012-12-03T07:00:51","date_gmt":"2012-12-03T11:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/?p=97672"},"modified":"2012-12-03T10:10:38","modified_gmt":"2012-12-03T14:10:38","slug":"whistling-in-the-dark-about-islam-and-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2012\/12\/whistling-in-the-dark-about-islam-and-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"Whistling in the dark about Islam and reform"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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Has anyone seen a story in the U.S. press about the opening of France\u2019s first gay-friendly mosque? I\u2019ve not come across anything in the U.S. mainstream media so far, but the story has received a great deal of play from the European press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now the cynic in me would want to feign shock at the New York Times<\/em> not having picked up this story as it deals with an issue dear to its heart. However, it is the foreign policy ramifications of this story that I thought would attract the attention of the U.S. media elite \u2014 for the underlying theme of this story has been the philosophical principle behind U.S. Middle East policy. All right-thinking people \u2014 government leaders, columnists, the professoriate \u2014 believe Islam can be reformed and its tenets brought in line with the Western liberal mind. I am surprised not to have seen America\u2019s public intellectuals jump all over this story.<\/p>\n

On Friday Le Monde<\/em> published a tight, nicely written story entitled \u00ab Une \u201cmosqu\u00e9e\u201d<\/a> ouverte aux homosexuels pr\u00e8s de Paris \u00bb. Drawing from a Reuters wire service story and its own reporting, Le Monde<\/em> reported that a gay French Muslim had opened a mosque in a borrowed room on the grounds of a Buddhist<\/a> dojo outside Paris.<\/p>\n

Reuters<\/a> reported:<\/p>\n

Europe\u2019s first gay and lesbian-friendly mosque opens on Friday in an eastern Paris suburb, in a challenge to mainstream Islam\u2019s long tradition of condemning same-sex relationships. The mosque, set up in a small room inside the house of a Buddhist monk, will welcome transgender and transsexual Muslims and seat men and women together, breaking with another custom where the sexes are normally segregated during prayer. Its founder, French-Algerian gay activist and practicing Muslim Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed, will also encourage women to lead Friday prayers, smashing yet another taboo.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a radically inclusive mosque. A mosque where people can come as they are,\u201d said Zahed, 35, whose prayer space will be the first in Europe to formally brand itself as a gay-friendly mosque, according to Muslim experts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

M. Zahed<\/a> sounds like he has latent Episcopalian-syndrome and uses all the right sort of Christian left buzz words. The story offers a few more words of explanation from M. Zahed<\/a>, negative reactions from French Muslim leaders and closes with comments from a French academic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal of these Muslims is to promote a form of Islam that is inclusive of progressive values,\u201d said Florence Bergeaud-Blackler, an associate researcher at France\u2019s Research and Studies Institute on the Arab and Muslim World. The push by gay Muslims for acceptance comes as a younger generation of Muslims is questioning some of the existing interpretations of the Koran as over-conservative. \u201cEven though they are still a extreme minority, their views have a solid theological basis. So their message is not having an insignificant impact,\u201d Bergeaud-Blackler said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Le Monde<\/em> story goes a bit deeper. The comments from French Muslim leaders are much harsher than those reported by Reuters. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00ab Il y a des musulmans homosexuels, \u00e7a existe, mais ouvrir une mosqu\u00e9e, c\u2019est une aberration, parce que la religion, c\u2019est pas \u00e7a \u00bb, estime Abdallah Zekri, pr\u00e9sident de l\u2019Observatoire des actes islamophobes, sous l\u2019autorit\u00e9 du Conseil fran\u00e7ais du culte musulman (CFCM).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which I roughly translate as:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are Muslim homosexuals. They exist. But to open a mosque, that is an aberration because homosexuality is contrary to our religion,\u201d said Abdallah Zekri, president of the Islamophobia (sorry AP<\/a> but that\u2019s what Le Monde<\/em> calls it) Observer for the CFCM.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0Le Monde<\/em> also has some choice quotes from M. Zahed as well.<\/p>\n

\u00ab Les musulmans ne doivent pas se sentir honteux. L\u2019homosexualit\u00e9 n\u2019est condamn\u00e9e nulle part, ni dans le Coran ni dans la sunna. Si le proph\u00e8te Mahomet \u00e9tait vivant, il marierait des couples d\u2019homosexuels. \u00bb Il r\u00eave d\u2019un islam \u00ab apais\u00e9, r\u00e9form\u00e9, inclusif\u00a0\u00bb,<\/em> qui accepterait le blasph\u00e8me car \u00ab la pens\u00e9e critique est essentielle pour le d\u00e9veloppement spirituel \u00bb.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which I understand to mean:<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/em>Muslims should not feel ashamed. Homosexuality is not condemned either in the Koran or in the Sunna. If the Prophet Muhammad were alive, he would marry of homosexual couples.\u201d [Zahed] dreams of\u00a0 \u201cpeaceful, reformed, inclusive\u201d Islam which which accepts blasphemy as \u201ccritical thinking essential to its spiritual development.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Le Monde<\/em> frames the story in a sympathetic light to M. Zahed. He is the underdog seeking to reform an ossified, dyed in the wool religious establishment. The article offers both sides of the debate \u2014 M. Zahed\u2019s beliefs and the institutional response. However, I am surprised this item has not received the New Yorker<\/em> 10,000 word treatment. A Muslim who speaks like an Episcopalian I imagine would be catnip to the mainstream American media.<\/p>\n

The Islam of M. Zahed is that of Presidents Bush and Obama. Government policy since 9\/11 has been predicated on the belief that Islam is like Christianity or Judaism. Given enough time, money and jawboning, Islam can reform and accommodate itself within a secularist pluralist society.<\/p>\n

Le Monde<\/em>\u2018s article about M. Zahed and Islam is written from a Westernized Christian worldview. Change the location to Texas and Islam for Southern Baptists and you would have the exact same story \u2014 even down to the buzz words and phrases proffered by M. Zahed. How often is it repeated that Jesus never said anything about homosexuality?<\/p>\n

However, Islam is fundamentally different from Judaism and Christianity and this difference is what makes it nearly impossible for Islam to reform. And, it is the consensus of Islamic scholars that Islam is in no need of reform. Writing in the Asia Times<\/em> under the pen name Spengler, David P. Goldman\u2019, stated:<\/p>\n

Hebrew and Christian scripture claim to be the report of human encounters with God. After the Torah is read each Saturday in synagogues, the congregation intones that the text stems from \u201cthe mouth of God by the hand of Moses\u201d, a leader whose flaws kept him from entering the Promised Land. The Jewish rabbis, moreover, postulated the existence of an unwritten Revelation whose interpretation permits considerable flexibility with the text. Christianity\u2019s Gospels, by the same token, are the reports of human evangelists.<\/p>\n

The Archangel Gabriel, by contrast, dictated the Koran to Mohammed, according to Islamic doctrine. That sets a dauntingly high threshold for textual critics. How does one criticize the word of God without rejecting its divine character? In that respect the Koran resembles the \u201cGolden Tablets\u201d of the Angel Moroni purported found by the Mormon leader Joseph Smith more than it does the Jewish or Christian bibles.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now almost 10 years old, Spengler\u2019s \u201cYou say you want a reformation?\u201d<\/a> remains fresh and his observations stand as a challenge to U.S. government policies that believe Islam can be transformed into another variety of American Protestantism.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the U.N. in September, President Obama said of the Arab Spring<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cTrue democracy\u2014real freedom\u2014is hard work,\u201d Mr. Obama said. \u201cThose in power have to resist the temptation to crack down on dissidents. In hard economic times, countries must be tempted\u2014 may be tempted\u2014to rally the people around perceived enemies, at home and abroad, rather than focusing on the painstaking work of reform.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Can Islam, which allows for no distinction between church and state, reform? The academic cited in the Le Monde<\/em> piece believes it can. France\u2019s first gay mosque will be a symbol of the younger generation\u2019s desire for an \u201cIslam that is inclusive of progressive values,\u201d she stated. A contrary voice speaking to Islam\u2019s response to minority voices (past and present) would have been a welcome counterweight. And give pause to those expecting peace to break out all over the Muslim world.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Has anyone seen a story in the U.S. press about the opening of France\u2019s first gay-friendly mosque? I\u2019ve not come across anything in the U.S. mainstream media so far, but the story has received a great deal of play from the European press. Now the cynic in me would want to feign shock […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":600,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,35,7,49],"tags":[507,502,503,501,505,504,144,506],"class_list":["post-97672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-got-news","category-islam","category-journalism","category-sex","tag-asia-times","tag-france","tag-gay-muslims","tag-le-monde","tag-ludovic-mohamed-zahed","tag-reforming-islam","tag-reuters","tag-spengler"],"yoast_head":"\nWhistling in the dark about Islam and reform<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Has anyone seen a story in the U.S. press about the opening of France's first gay-friendly mosque? 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