The Muslim Reformation
Before watching Tariq Ramadam's "Dispatches: The Muslim Reformation" I was unaware of the Islamic concept of Ijtehad - a concept that permits the re-examination of Qur'anic texts and Muslim teachings in a new context. This, argues Tariq, is the way forward for Muslims who live in non-Muslim secular states. Bring it on - liberal, progressive Muslims able to live in liberal and progressive countries with no contradiction between their surroundings and their religion. Everybody wins
Not so say man from Hizb ut Tahrir.
That's just looking at Islam from a colonial perspective. Apparently. Changing the meaning of Islam to fit in with the western imperialists. Yes, the man from the Hizb used that word colonial. Because he knows colonization is bad and that Europe is now ashamed of its colonial past. Twas bad of us.
Now. Man from the Hizb and his fellow reactionaries believe that the rest of the world is hostile to Islam and that Islam is in conflict with the non-Muslim world. Their literal interpretation of the Qur'an gives them a religion that hits hard against enlightenment values and sits squat out of sync with secular, democratic countries. With disasterous results.
Scribbles would like to ask therefore why these reactionaries come to live in countries whose core values are so completely at odds with their fundamentalist beliefs? Why? Why? Why?
Why don't they all piss off to Iran or wherever else their 'conservative' interpretation of their religion means they can trample all over each others human rights to their hearts content, and leave the rest of the world to us liberals and democrats - whether followers of a religion or not - so that we can live in peace?
Unless of course, this is about colonization. But, surely not. Because as we all know. Colonialism is bad.
5 comments:
Quite a few constructive comments I have...
First, being a insider (I am Muslim myself), I must tell you that Tariq Ramadan is not the best person to be listening to when trying to learn about Islam. His views are out of touch with those of the majority of correct, Orthodox scholars, such as Egyptian Omar Abd ElKafi. Ramadan insists on twisting the religion in order to be able to 'meet the Western cultures'.
But there's a problem here: The Islamic religion, on its own, is perfectly capable of 'meeting' the Western cultures. It is simply the media's rendition of it that has convinced numerous people around the globe otherwise. One must look deeper into the religion.
As for Hizb ut Tahrir, you don't want to be listening to them as well. They are simply one of the many groups that have come into Islam with their own viewpoints, not following the religion as it should be followed. You can call it brainwashing - that's what I call it.
I like the fact that you bring up 'enlightenment values'. If we are to really look into Islam, we shall see that Islam itself contains numerous enlightenment values. It only takes patience and a true willingness to learn the religion to realize that Islam made the lives of many societies much better when it was introduced upon them. Although Islam does clash with certain Western values, such as that of sexual liberation, that does not deter from the fact that Islam can prosper in a non-Islamic society. So why would Islam oppose to sexual liberation? Simple, to reduce teen pregnancies, to remain modest, to reduce sexually transmitted diseases and to allow for a more coherent society. (Read Thomas Dalrymple's 'Life On The Bottom' in which he compares poor people of different cultures and in which he discovers that people who refrain from sexual liberation, as well as other things, tend to have a healthier physical and mental status).
And we must remember, and this is a critical fact, that Islam as practiced today is not the true, correct Islam. We cannot take the people to be a reflection of the religion, because in the end we are all faulty.
So, why do these reactionaries come to live in non-Islamic countries? I really don't know, and I would agree with you that they should get out. Either they practice the religion properly or ....hmmmm....or practice the religion properly.
Islam is a beautiful religion. We must only take the time to understand it. Despite the fact that this religion is shrouded in a dark cloud of misunderstanding and confusion, its true beauty will shine one day. And remember! Don't take the Muslims as a representation of the religion. Otherwise I could learn about Christianity by talking to the KKK....Now wouldn't that be interesting?
Thank you very much for your thoughtful comments, and well done for getting it posted when Blogger is having a mad fit!
I used to be quite an extremist atheist - I could see (refused to see) no good in any religion.
I am different now, and though I still don't believe in any God and follow no faith, I do see the good that religion could play in people's lives if it were not for all these loons who distort it. That's why I consider myself akin to you and your view on your own religion and yet feel such hostility (can you tell?)towards those who twist religion into something damaging and even into something evil.
It's not Islam or religion I have a problem with, it's those who use it to heap such misery on us all.
Fascinating to see the appropriation of secular critical discourse by religious fundamentalists - you can see it in Israel with Hamas describing their treatment under the Israel's as a 'holocaust' too.
Interesting too that they take arguments that were the result of intellectual introspection and self-criticism (post-colonialism, etc.) and use their language without using their logic. Ie. they use it simply criticise the West and support their own actions rather than examine their own structures of power.
From scholarship to ideology in one easy step.
Muslims have never been good at self-criticism at any level.
They cannot criticise their own book (Koran) they cannot criticise their 'prophet' they cannot criticise their own (violent) history etc. etc. etc.
When you don't have the ability for auto or self criticism then you can imagine what effect that has on integration into any culture that is different from the Islamic one. It completely short circuits it leaving the individual with only a sense of contempt for the non-islamic culture to which he remains permanently estranged.
I admire Tariq Ramadan for his courage. At least, he is doing a real service to European Muslims by opening a door to integration. The alternative, any alternative, is not a good one.
It might be possible for Islam to survive in Europe after this 'reformation' or then again it might disappear after another generation or two.
Time will tell.
Unless I'm mistaken though it's only been relatively recently that Christians find themselves able to criticise their faith and what has been done in its name. Hasn't Christianity morphed in order to survive in a environment that became hostile to it? Is it not entirely possible that Islam could morph too?
It is a dismal state of affairs that anyone should feel they either have to 'estrange' themselves from their religion or estrange themselves from the rest of the world - that there is no other possible way through. And it's also rubbish. From school to workplace I've always been part of a multi-faith multi-cultural environment and the concept that people of different faiths/cultures cannot function together is ridiculous, because we have, we do and we always will.
Who are these people who are saying it can't be done? The people from the lunatic fringes with their own agendas. I don't really want to see the world through their eyes.
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