Great debate between Irshad Manji and Reza Aslan about Muslim Reform - https://youtube/watch?v=ic1w2W6MwRU - 5 part series. Reza: … In this country alone, the amazing work being done by … Muslim Public Affairs Council, dozens of organizations that are screaming at their top of their lungs to be heard in this shouting match that is taking place in this Muslim world. Irshad: Really, already… I did not have to wait very long did I. I have got to challenge that last statement yet again. Reza you have listed at the top of your head all kinds of organizations that are doing amazing work and they fail to be heard… but I have to say that what you have just said raises a much broader issue … which is the difference between Moderate Muslims which most of these organizations are a part of and Reform-minded Muslims. We are also focussed in this country on trying to distinguish between the Extremists and the Moderates…where are the Moderates?... the Moderates are part of the problem. What really ought to be asked is where are the Reform-minded Muslims?… The Moderates denounce terror that is committed in the name of Islam but they did not - that Islam has anything to do with this violence. Reform-minded Muslims condemn Islamist violence and acknowledge that our religion is being used to help incite the violence that is committed in its name. You often hear Moderate Muslims insist that Islam has nothing to do with this …in effect they abandon the ground of theological interpretation to those of malignant intention. They wave a white symbolic flag, the universal symbol of capitulation to those who are abusing Islam because they are saying to the terrorists of the Islamic variety that we, as mainstream Muslims will not challenge you with bold competing interpretations of the Quran… so you guys, you guys can walk away with the show, you get to define what Islam is in the popular discourse… Reform minded Muslims on the other hand step up to the plate and insist that we got to re-interpret the violent passages of the Quran, in much the same way as the Christians have done with the violent passages of their Bible and Reform Jews have done with the violent passages of the Old Testament. And re-interpreting does not mean re-writing… it means rethinking the words that already exist… and in that sense Reform-minded Muslims are as authentic as Moderates are and I would argue that we are also much more constructive than Moderates are, so at then end of the day I would argue that most of the the various organizations that Reza has reeled off are, giving through their denial, giving the Extremists elements a blank cheque and may be they are doing it out of fear. May be fear in part breeds denial. After all Reform-minded Muslims challenge the Extremists and often pay for it with imprisonment, prolonged unemployment and that is at the best of their times, and as we know, sometimes with their lives. Joshua
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 18:19:00 +0000
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