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May 4, 2006
Challenge To Islam - 'O ye, of little tolerant faith'
Topics: Understanding IslamEvery once and a while someone steps up and lays out the truth without the window dressing:
"... the Koran is riddled with "invocations to violence" and the central challenge of Islam lies in the struggle between moderate and extremist forces as the faith spreads into a "childless Europe".And this is just his warm-up. Australia's most influential Catholic has much more ..."... In my own reading of the Koran, I began to note down invocations to violence. There are so many of them, however, that I abandoned this exercise after 50 or 60 or 70 pages."
"... every nation and every religion, including Catholicism, had "crimes in their histories". In the same way, Islam could not airbrush its "shadows".
"... Claims of Muslim tolerance of Christian and Jewish minorities were largely mythical and he wondered about the possibility of theological development in Islam when the Koran was said to come directly from God.
"... Considered strictly on its own terms, Islam is not a tolerant religion and its capacity for far-reaching renovation is severely limited,"
The good news is that there are proponents for the reform of Islam, like Malek Chebel who has suggested 27 "Propositions for Reforming Islam":
Chebel's first two propositions set the principles of reform: a new interpretation of the Koran, and the preeminence of reason over creed. However, he dismisses atheism, noting that "nothing very important is achieved outside the framework of religion."Now if he could only "sell it" to the jihadists!Chebel calls for putting an end to violence in the name of Islam; for renouncing Jihad, which is, in his eyes, immoral; for abolishing all fatwas calling for death; and for abolishing Islamic corporal punishment. Chebel stands against female genital mutilation and for banning slavery and trafficking in human beings in the Arab world; for strict punishment of the perpetrators of honor crimes and for promoting the status of women.
Most of Chebel's propositions deal with politics: He advocates an independent judiciary, the preeminence of the individual over the Islamic nation, and the struggle against political assassinations in an effort to promote democracy in the Arab world. He also advocates fundamental cultural changes, such as turning freedom of thought into a Muslim value, renouncing the cult of personality, respecting the other, and fighting corruption.
His other propositions address technology, bioethics, ecology, and the media. The last one reaffirms the preeminence of human beings over religion. Chebel's propositions aim at providing keys to a modern, reformed, enlightened Islam.
Posted by Richard at May 4, 2006 4:37 PM
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