{"id":1512,"date":"2015-03-10T15:16:02","date_gmt":"2015-03-10T21:16:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=1512"},"modified":"2015-03-10T15:16:28","modified_gmt":"2015-03-10T21:16:28","slug":"from-the-library-a-battle-for-the-soul-of-islam-by-dr-m-zuhdi-jasser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/03\/from-the-library-a-battle-for-the-soul-of-islam-by-dr-m-zuhdi-jasser.html","title":{"rendered":"From the Library: A Battle for the Soul of Islam, by Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

This\u2019ll be short, as I already had to return the book from the library and am going on memory and a few notes.<\/p>\n

Remember when I said, \u201cIslam needs a Jewish Enlightenment<\/a>\u201c? \u00a0No? \u00a0Well, I invite you go to read this post, from January (pre-Patheos) and tell me what you think.<\/p>\n

Dr. Jasser has \u2014 well, OK, this book was published back in 2012, so clearly he hadn\u2019t, but it felt like the core of what I was trying to say, he agreed with: \u00a0that a renewed Islam able to equip its followers for the 21st century, rather than the 7th century, needs to separate out certain ideas that Jasser, at least, identifies as the core of Islam (others would disagree) \u2014 essentially the ecumenical notions of \u201clove God and your neighbor\u201d \u2014 and discard that which is unhelpful. \u00a0And the discarding is to be done by re-understanding the Quran in the most benefit-of-the-doubt, peaceful, tolerant, equality-promoting manner, regardless of whether it\u2019s in line with scholars from Egypt, or historical chains of belief, or the like.<\/p>\n

He grew up in the United States, the son of very modern, middle-class democracy-loving parents who themselves left Syria when their hopes for democracy in that country were dashed, and who passed on their liberal beliefs (that is, pro-democracy and freedom, not liberal in the American political terminology) to him, in small-town Wisconsin. \u00a0Upon entering college, he found that the Muslim Student Association group was too hardline and anti-Israel for his taste; aftewards he joined the Navy, as a doctor, and later founded the American Islamic Forum for Democracy<\/a>, with the goal of supporting moderate, democracy-loving, patriotic Muslims.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, he seems to be nearly alone in his quest. \u00a0His organization is not quite a one-man shop, but doesn\u2019t seem to be particular large, and certainly doesn\u2019t seem to have much influence in the wider community. \u00a0And\u00a0the fact\u00a0that the media takes CAIR to be the official representatives of Muslims in America, doesn\u2019t help matters, given that CAIR has labelled them <\/a>as among the worst \u201cpromoters of Islamophobia,\u201d on their own website (from 2013) \u2014 which certainly seems to mean that Muslims who want to pursue Dr. Jasser\u2019s path will be obliged to strike out on their own rather than working within established communities of Muslims.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This\u2019ll be short, as I already had to return the book from the library and am going on memory and a few notes. Remember when I said, \u201cIslam needs a Jewish Enlightenment\u201c? \u00a0No? \u00a0Well, I invite you go to read this post, from January (pre-Patheos) and tell me what you think. Dr. Jasser has \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":1386,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-1512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-islam"],"yoast_head":"\nFrom the Library: A Battle for the Soul of Islam, by Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This'll be short, as I already had to return the book from the library and am going on memory and a few notes. 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