{"id":390,"date":"2012-03-29T18:33:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-29T18:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/03\/reform-islam.html"},"modified":"2012-03-29T18:33:00","modified_gmt":"2012-03-29T18:33:00","slug":"reform-islam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/03\/reform-islam.html","title":{"rendered":"Reform Islam?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

If you\u2019re a liberal Jew, there are denominations for you.\u00a0 If you\u2019re a liberal Christian, you\u2019ve got them, too.\u00a0 Liberal Muslim?\u00a0 Not so much.<\/p>\n

HuffPo has a piece<\/a> about how this might be changing:<\/p>\n

On this brisk Monday night in late October, members of Muslims for Progressive Values, a nascent American reformist organization, had gathered from around the country to celebrate a milestone: In four years, the group had grown from a few friends to a thousand members and spawned a string of small mosques and spiritual groups that stretched from Atlanta to Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Today, as America\u2019s Muslim leaders debate controversial topics like political radicalism inside mosques and states\u2019 attempts to ban Shariah law<\/a>, this growing network of alternative mosques and Islamic groups is quietly forging a new spiritual movement.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re taking bold steps, reinterpreting Islamic norms and re-examining taboos. While far from accepted by mainstream clerics, these worshippers feel that the future of the religion lies not solely with tradition but with them. Women are leading congregations in prayer, gay imams are performing Islamic marriages, and men and women are praying side by side.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019ve long believed that the best opportunity for creating a liberal Islam is right here in America.\u00a0 Our open society, increasingly (if slowly) offering equality to women and gays, is the perfect laboratory for this.<\/p>\n

Like their Jewish counterparts, progressive Muslims will struggle over the relative authority of their written scripture and its oral interpretation.\u00a0 Early Jewish reformers, beginning in the late 18th century, faced similar issues.\u00a0 And it wasn\u2019t until they came to America that they were able to really experiment with their new approaches.<\/p>\n

Of course, there are naysayers:<\/p>\n

Dalia Mogahed, director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies\u2026takes a critical view of the progressives.<\/p>\n

Muslims for Progressive Values \u201care little more than a footnote or a special interest,\u201d she writes in an email. \u201cTheir actual influence in the [Muslim American] community is virtually non-existent,\u201d adds Mogahed, who spent six years collecting 50,000 interviews for the book \u201cWho Speaks For Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That may be true now, but Reform Judaism started out in a few parlors in German households and ultimately gave birth to all of the non-Orthodox religious denominations that we have today.<\/p>\n

Who knows?\u00a0 Maybe some day, a long, long time from now, there will even be a movement for secular humanistic Islam. \u00a0I suspect that by the time that happens they\u2019ll be traveling to their meetings via transporter beam.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re a liberal Jew, there are denominations for you.\u00a0 If you\u2019re a liberal Christian, you\u2019ve got them, too.\u00a0 Liberal Muslim?\u00a0 Not so much. HuffPo has a piece about how this might be changing:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[19,25],"class_list":["post-390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentries","tag-islam","tag-liberal-religions-and-theologies"],"yoast_head":"\nReform Islam?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you\u2019re a liberal Jew, there are denominations for you.\u00a0 If you\u2019re a liberal Christian, you\u2019ve got them, too.\u00a0 Liberal Muslim?\u00a0 Not so much. 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