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Sunday, August 14, 2005
For and against an Islamic Reformation
Salman Rushdie makes a plea for an Islamic Reformation:
And for a well-articulated view that argues against the conventional wisdom of Islam needing a reformation, read Edward Feser's essay, "Does Islam Need a Luther or a Pope?" (This link via email, a few days ago, from Prakash Chandrashekar, a sometime guest-blogger at AnarCapLib.)
It ought to be fascinating to Muslims everywhere to see how deeply their beloved book is a product of its place and time, and in how many ways it reflects the Prophet’s own experiences.Rushdie concludes that "[t]he Islamic Reformation has to begin here, with an acceptance of the concept that all ideas, even sacred ones, must adapt to altered realities." Read the full piece.
However, few Muslims have been permitted to study their religious book in this way. The insistence within Islam that the Quranic text is the infallible, uncreated word of God renders analytical scholarly discourse all but impossible. Why would God be influenced by the socioeconomics of seventh century Arabia, after all? Why would the Messenger’s personal circumstances have anything to do with the Message?
The traditionalists’ refusal of history plays right into the hands of the literalist Islamofascists, allowing them to imprison Islam in their iron certainties and unchanging absolutes.
And for a well-articulated view that argues against the conventional wisdom of Islam needing a reformation, read Edward Feser's essay, "Does Islam Need a Luther or a Pope?" (This link via email, a few days ago, from Prakash Chandrashekar, a sometime guest-blogger at AnarCapLib.)
