(I\u2019m going to write this in two parts: \u00a0for today, a\u00a0summary of the book;\u00a0tomorrow I\u2019ll tell you more of what I thought of it.)<\/p>\n
From the subtitle alone, \u201cWhy Islam Needs a Reformation Now,\u201d I was predisposed to agree with this book. \u00a0(For new readers, here\u2019s my post from January, \u201cIslam needs a \u2018Jewish Enlightenment<\/a>\u2018\u201d, in which I argued that the model for the development Islam is in need of is the Jewish Enlightenment, the movement that brought about Reform Judaism, and here are\u00a0my comments <\/a>on a similarly-themed book from March.)<\/p>\n So here\u2019s the scoop: \u00a0Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a well-known (in conservative circles, anyway) critic of Islam; she was born in Somalia, and lived for a time in Saudi Arabia and Kenya before fleeing to the Netherlands to escape an arranged marriage; in the Netherlands, she came to abandon the very strict practice of Islam for atheism. \u00a0In her new book, she says that if she had had the option of a \u201creformed Islam,\u201d maybe she wouldn\u2019t have felt the need to abandon the faith altogether. \u00a0(p. 51)<\/p>\n She identifies three types of Muslims:<\/p>\n Mecca Muslims practice the faith with devotion but without militancy; Medina Muslims are aggressive in their belief that Islam should be dominant; Modifying Muslims are her ray of hope, a small, but not impossibly small number of Muslims who support reform.<\/p>\n And she lists five principles \u2014 her version of Luther\u2019s 95 theses (from page 24):<\/p>\n 1) \u00a0Muhammad\u2019s semi-divine and infallible status along iwth the literalist reading of the Qur\u2019an, particularly those parts that were revealed in Medina;<\/p>\n 2) The investment in life after death instead of life before death;<\/p>\n 3) Sharia, the body of legislation derived from the Qur\u2019an, the hadith, and the rest of Islamic jurisprudence;<\/p>\n 4) The practice of empowering individuals to enforce Islamic law by commanding right and forbidding wrong;<\/p>\n 5) The imperative to wage jihad, or holy war.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Why has there been no reform to now?<\/p>\n Innovation of faith is one of the gravest sins in Islam, on a par with murder and apostasy. . . . It is important to grasp the extent to which religion is intertwined with politics and political systems in Islamic societies. . . . This fusion of the spiritual and the temporal offers an initial clue as to why a Muslim Reformation has yet to happen. \u00a0For it was in large measure the separateness of church and state in early modern Europe that made the Christian Reformation viable. \u00a0(p. 56 \u2013 57)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n On Islam and modernity:<\/p>\n The golden age of Islamic science and philosophy, which predated the European Enlightenment, lies a thousand years in the past. \u00a0While many Muslim nations have benefited from advances in science and economics, while they now have their gleaming skyscrapers and infrastructure, the philosophical revolution that grew out of the Protestant Reformation has largely passed them by. \u00a0 . . . Islam is content to use the West\u2019s technological products . . . but resists the underlying values that produced them. (p. 59).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Any attempts at change, even early in Islam\u2019s history, were shut down. \u00a0More recently, in the 19th and early 20th century, reformers proposed, well, reform, but were condemned and denounced. \u00a0Reformers in the late 20th century were, in one case, hanged (in Sudan) and, in other cases, had to flee to the West.<\/p>\n Because the Qur\u2019an is inviolate, timeless, and perfect, what is written in it cannot be criticized, much less changed. \u00a0(p. 64)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Optimism for the future:<\/p>\n I believe that a Reformation is not merely imminent; it is now underway. \u00a0The Protestant Reformation itself erupted quite suddenly. With Islam, with equal suddenness, the change has already begun and will only accelerate in the years that lie ahead.<\/p>\n Recall the three factors that were crucial to the success of the Protestant Reformation: \u00a0technological change, urbanization, and the interests of a significant number of European states in backing Luther\u2019s challenge to the status quo. \u00a0All three are present in the Muslim world today. \u00a0(p. 69)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Example of el-Sisi\u2019s speech.<\/p>\n The Qur\u2019an, and the thesis to abandon its being sacrosanct:<\/p>\n The Allah of my childhood was a fiery diety. \u00a0(p. 91)<\/p>\n Allah is not a benevolent father figure \u00a0(p. 92) . . . In its scripture, Islam is also fundamentally different. \u00a0It places more emphasis on divine omnipotence and less on human free will.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n As to the violent verses that we\u2019re told have to be seen in context, and don\u2019t really promote violence, she says that<\/p>\n The 25 leading approved Quran Interpretations (commentaries) \u2014 that are usually used by Muslims to understand the Quran \u2014 unambiguously support the violent understanding of the verse. (p. 94)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Also note that there have never been the same sort of textual studies of the Qur\u2019an as have occurred with the Bible, analysis of the development of the book over time; it\u2019s simply verboten.<\/p>\n Changing central aspects of Islamic doctrine became even more difficult in the tenth century. \u00a0At that time, jurists of the various schools of law decided that all the essential questions had been settled and that permitting any new interpretations would not be productive.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 2nd problem: \u00a0the centrality of life after death, to the point of motivating jihadists.<\/p>\n The preeminence of the hereafter get[s] drummed into Muslims. . . \u00a0(p. 113)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n with a very fixed, literal conception of heaven, and<\/p>\n Islam is not unusual in having a tradition of martyrs. \u00a0What is unique to Islam is the tradition of murderous martyrdom, in which the individual martyr simultaneously commits suicide and kills others for religious reasons. \u00a0 (p. 117)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Fixation on the afterlife also produces fatalism about this one. \u00a0Minor examples: \u00a0in the Netherlands, she observed that the immigrant Muslims littered without hesitation, and shrugged it off as \u201cGod\u2019s will.\u201d \u00a0Same with polygamy and large families beyond their capacity to care for, who \u201crun about, wild and unsupervised, at all hours\u201d: \u00a0\u201cGod\u2019s will.\u201d<\/p>\n There is a fatalism that creeps into one\u2019s worldview when this life is seen as transitory and the next is the only one that matters. \u00a0Why pick up trash, why discipline your children, when none of those acts is stored up for any type of reward? \u00a0Those are not the behaviors that mark good Muslims; they have nothing to do with praying or proselytizing. \u00a0(p. 124)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In other words, if I follow this and prior comments, she\u2019s saying that Muslims don\u2019t have the same conception of what it means to lead a good or sinful life as we imagine as Christians\/Westerners.<\/p>\n This, too, helps explain the notorious underrepresentation of Muslims as scientific and technological innovators. . . . Though it is unfashionable to say so, Islam\u2019s fatalism is a more plausible explanation for the Muslim world\u2019s failure to innovate. (p. 125)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Chapter 5 title: \u00a0\u201cShackled by Sharia: \u00a0How Islam\u2019s Harsh Religious Code Keeps Muslims Stuck in the Seventh Century\u201d \u00a0pretty much sums up the whole next chapter. \u00a0Its features are well-known by now: \u00a0beheadings and amputations, and for \u201ccrimes\u201d that are not even crimes at all: \u00a0apostasy, \u201cblasphemy\u201d, adultery or non-marital sex, homosexuality. \u00a0Plus, sharia prescribes all manner of mistreatment of women, from spousal abuse to unequal laws on divorce and child custody. \u00a0And Sharia as law of the land has wide support among Muslims.<\/p>\n There is probably no realistic chance that Muslims in countries such as Pakistan will agree to dispense with sharia. \u00a0However, we in the West must insist that Muslims living in our societies abide by our rule of law. . . . Moreover, under no circumstances should Western coutries allow Muslims to form self-governing enclaves in which women and other supposedly second-class citizens can be treated in ways that belong int he seventh century.<\/p>\n Yet that is not enough. \u00a0We must also address and reform Islam\u2019s most powerful social tool: \u00a0the informal grassroots enforcement of its strictest religious principles in the name of commanding right and forbidding wrong. (p. 152)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Which is the subject of chapter 6 \u2014 the rigorous social control, the determination of the \u201cMedina Muslims\u201d to regulate every aspect of life for those around them, even to the point of honor killings. \u00a0Even when not at the extreme of killing, this social control takes away from any privacy in one\u2019s home or family.<\/p>\n The last topic is Jihad: \u00a0she points out that the jihadists are not fleeing poverty, but come from middle-class, even wealthy families. \u00a0She identifies the passages in the Qur\u2019an that call for jihad, and points to the fact that jihadists are becoming celebrities on social media. \u00a0She traces the origins of jihadi leaders and groups, a script followed by Boko Haram, and by her experiences as a child and teen: \u00a0they begin by preaching a fundamentalist, but not explicitly violent message of a more pure practice of the faith, and gain followers, then confront the established community leaders and move into a more aggressive, violent phase.<\/p>\n And the West, reluctant to be seen as confronting \u201cIslam,\u201d has been tolerant of radical groups and indifferent to the threat they pose.<\/p>\n Is Jihad curable? \u00a0There are efforts among various groups to define jihad in a way that precludes terrorist groups: \u00a0the Saudi \u201cdeprogramming\u201d effort, for instance, says, that only \u00a0\u201cthe legitimate rules or Islamic states, not individuals such as Osama bin Laden, can declare a holy war. \u00a0(p. 204) \u2014 but this still leaves room for groups such as ISIS to say, \u201cwe are a \u2018state\u2019 and therefore legitimate jihadists.\u201d<\/p>\n It is obviously next to impossible to redefine the word \u201cjihad\u201d as if its call to arms is purely metaphorical (in the style of the hymn \u201cOnward Christian Soldiers\u201d. \u00a0There is too much conflicting scripture, and too many examples from the Qur\u2019an and hadith that the jihadists can cite to bolster their case.<\/p>\n Therefore I believe the best option would be to take it off the table. \u00a0 (p. 206)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Twilight of Tolerance \u2014 chapter 8 \u2014 largely says the West is blind to the issue. \u00a0But what can the West do? \u00a0Openly support reformist groups within Islam, in the same way as we supported anti-communist groups during the Cold war. \u00a0(p. 218 ff)<\/p>\n Then Ali restates her call, and, in her final chapter and in an appendix, provides some detail on Muslim reformers and dissidents, most of whom, unfortunately live in the West or, if in Muslim countries, have faced jail time or worse.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (I\u2019m going to write this in two parts: \u00a0for today, a\u00a0summary of the book;\u00a0tomorrow I\u2019ll tell you more of what I thought of it.) From the subtitle alone, \u201cWhy Islam Needs a Reformation Now,\u201d I was predisposed to agree with this book. \u00a0(For new readers, here\u2019s my post from January, \u201cIslam needs a \u2018Jewish Enlightenment\u2018\u201d, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n