Step Into the Light
Salman Rushdie has a few suggestions. Let’s hope his meet up with Irshad Manji’s and those of other reformers and start to displace the putative ‘leadership’ and ‘representativeness’ of the MCB. Let’s hope the whole project thrives.
Reformed Islam would reject conservative dogmatism and accept that, among other things, women are fully equal to men; that people of other religions, and of no religion, are not inferior to Muslims; that differences in sexual orientation are not to be condemned, but accepted as aspects of human nature; that anti-Semitism is not OK; and that the repression of free speech by the thin-skinned ideology of easily-taken “offence” must be replaced by genuine, robust, anything-goes debate in which there are no forbidden ideas or no-go areas.
Doesn’t that sound blissful? Wouldn’t it just make a huge difference if Islam were like that?
Reformed Islam would encourage diaspora Muslims to emerge from their self-imposed ghettoes and stop worrying so much about locking up their daughters. It would emerge from the intellectual ghetto of literalism and subservience to mullahs and ulema, allowing open, historically based scholarship to emerge from the shadows to which the madrassas and seminaries have condemned it.
Ghettoes, locking up, subservience, shadows. Reform is about emerging from all that. It’s a hopeful vision. Let’s hope people can start to see it that way.
I must confess that I find his programme of reform extremely utopian if we are talking about internal reform of Islam by believing muslims.
The notions expressed are just too far removed from accepted interpretations of Islamic doctrine. The best hope for Islam as a modern religion will probably come from external pressure by secularised, nominal muslims or open apostates.
We should remember that much of the modernisation of the Church of England was in response to external critics (e.g. Darwin,Bertrand Russell, T.H. Huxley etc.). I would say that religion can only reform when its believers are forced to see how ridiculous they are.
An interesting comment on the other side of this problem, buried in the Guardian today:
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1569487,00.html
Hmm, intended quote vanished from that post:
“Before we criticise the “multi” bit of multiculturalism we need to look to the health of the culture bit, which is woeful, and dangerously so. To take a trivial example: how do those who complain about Muslims failing to “identify with Britain” feel about Channel 4 keeping the Big Brother inmates ignorant of the fact that, while they drank, argued and flirted, their country had led a worldwide demonstration against African poverty, won the 2012 Olympics and been attacked by terrorists? About which, when released, none of them appeared to give a toss?”
MKJ
Perhaps optimistic rather than utopian? After all, there’s nothing far fetched about a relaxed, open Islamic society. Lebanon used to be such a case, and Malaysia is not exactly oppressed by religion.
However;
‘religion can only reform when its believers are forced to see how ridiculous they are.’
I think you’ll find that a thoroughly self-defeating strategy. You don’t persuade someone by calling them a fool.
Edgar’s article is worth a read.
Don
I think the crucial point here is that Malaysia and Lebanon used to be tolerant societies but this was as a result of downplaying religion in their societies. We have seen what happened to Lebanon and, with the rise of the PAS islamist party in Malaysia, we can see increased pressure for sharia law and intolerance of non- muslim minorities.
“I think you’ll find that a thoroughly self-defeating strategy. You don’t persuade someone by calling them a fool.”
I’m not so sure. In order to persuade people they are wrong you have to at least demonstrate that they are wrong. This might make them feel foolish (and cause “offence”)but surely Rushdie’s point was that they need to get rid of their thin- skinned attitudes?
Rushdie says Kashmir used to be that way too – a tolerant society. That it has changed in the last fifty years, as have other places. Surely that implies they can also change back.
I’m rather hoping that’s true of the US, too – though probably not in my lifetime.
sigh
Dave,
When it comes to Big Brother, I have trouble identifying with Britain myself.
MKJ,
I really feel that, along with secularised, nominal moslems, there are a huge number of genuinely religious moslems who simply do not subscribe to the authoritarian, Wahhabist school and who are actively striving to create an Islam that can exist harmoniously with the real twenty-first century world we inhabit.
(If you haven’t done so already, I urge you to visit ‘Pickled Politics’.)
These are the people who are doing the real work, and in many cases sticking their necks out to do it. They may be reformers, but they are believers and unlikely to respond kindly to being ‘forced to see how ridiculous they are.’
That doesn’t mean dancing around thin-skinned attitudes or going belly up at every cry of grievance. Of course we should call the extremists when they abuse human rights (scarcely a blind-spot here at B&W). But nor does it mean wading in to this debate with an attitude of ‘Your religion is stupid’.
Sorry if I’m mis-characterising your post.
Of course, I could stand accused of hypocrisy here, as an atheist who has done his share of religion bashing, but I do get the feeling that a reformist/enlightenment movement is growing within Islam and I’m encouraged by that.
But I think the key is that it is ‘within Islam’.There are some areas of the debate with which we should – and do – engage, but there are others which are essentially internal. For example, I am intrigued by the movement to restore Ijtihad, but I am scarcely qualified to comment.
(OK, ‘scarcely qualified’ has never stopped me in the past, but what the hell.)
After all, you don’t reform something you don’t respect.
MKJ
I didn’t mean to suggest you would go bull-headed into the debate, just being cautious.
The web address is;
http://www.pickledpolitics.com/
OB might want to link?
By the way, interesting article by Timothy Garton Ash in the Guardian, on varying perceptions of this issue.
I added the link. It’s under blogs.