Pressing a Muslim Reformation

[DebChris]

I would argue that one already is happening, called Moderate Islam , it just needs time to gain traction, but ultimately the gospel is better than an Islamic reform .

When was reformation ever beneficial, both to the faith and to the people? And why press to change something that is falls short of the Truth, both of God and of man? Rather, the best outcome possible for Muslims, or for whatever other creed member, is to become Christians. However, that’s up to us Christians to live a life that all peoples desire and imitate.

Christus natus est1

Exactly. The people who follow a particular religion will follow that religion until moved by the Holy Spirit that there is a better option.
Islam does not have a Vatican, or pope. It does have Imans who yield more influence than others. The vast majority have condemned the violence being done in the name of Islam. They use the name Daesh rather than give credence to a criminal organization.

The public service announcements that I saw while living in the Middle East focused on the devastation and shame that joining any of these groups would bring to families. No translation was necessary to understand the ads. Why else would these groups recruit more heavily from America and Europe than from the Middle East?

Don’t overlook Catholic teaching on relationship with Muslims, remembering that they too worship the same God of Abraham that we do.

The best way to evangelize, to lead people to the truth of Christ is not by condemnation or stereotyping a whole people. It is by living the life to which we have been called.
To encourage prayer, for instance, the parish priest said to take advantage of the Islamic call to prayer, the hours almost corresponding to the Liturgy of the Hours The overseas parish to which I belonged was the most vibrant of any to which I have belonged.

 

[KathleenGee]

It is one thing to be tolerant of other people and not stereotype.

It is another thing not to be aware and vigilant for the welfare of all people, particularly for those of us at home in our own country.

I just read that House Resolution 569 was voted on, put forward by 82 democrats headed by Muslim Ellis of Minnesota, for a law modeled on the Pakistan blasphemy law that would stop anyone from ‘criticizing Islam’.

We likewise have the Student Muslim Brotherhood staked on just about every college/university campus in the country, and that is no accident.

It is going to be impossible, I think, for Islam to reform itself from within at this time, as more is coming out for the Muslim world to see…and reject. I think what follows the Year of Mercy could be a rise in jihadi attacks on innocent people here and abroad. So we must be vigilant and have the right to speak on our behalf for our own protection regarding the sanctity of our own lives.

I live in a very atheistic part of the USA and see more hostility to Christianity than to Islam, so come across as I do. My new car had the rosary on my rear view mirror, and when I drove up, this Muslim man filled my car with the wrong gas and almost destroyed my car and I have had several other incidents, living 12 blocks from a Muslim community. My other car was rear ended so hard that its license plate numbers were indented into the rear and the couple was telling the insurance company no harm was done to it, and the husband implied I was looking for a lawsuit to get money out of them. Other times I was insulted at the stores…behind my back, by a fellow with long white clothes wearing a cap.

Sorry if I am on edge. I cannot help but be inclined to be vigilant and pray constantly, not to offend our Lord Who stands before all people, but also for human life and the respect that should be shown beliefs that are Christian.

 

[DebChris]

I have spent much of my life overseas where being a Christian means being the minority. It is not the role of Christianity to tell members of other religions how to resolve their issues anymore than we would have members of others religions, or secular society try to resolve the issues that we face. We are to be transformed by Christ rather than to allow the world to change us into their image.
It is true that Christians face persecution in various regions of the world, as they have throughout the ages. Other than a few misunderstanding as to what my faith teaches, I have not faced any persecution. Perhaps it is because of these misunderstandings that I tend to listen to what a person practicing a different religion says he believes/practices before jumping to conclusions about that person’s beliefs or practices.
Just as there have been attacks on Christians/Jews, there have also been attacks on Muslims simply because a woman wears a hajib. Sikhs have been mistaken for Muslim and likewise been attacked. None of this is right.
I was never accosted for my faith while living in the Middle East. Vehicles displayed the rosary with no problem. It took me a while to accept that the swatiska did not mean the same in cultural setting in which I was living that it does in Western culture. Sikhs wore their turbans.
I realize that the Pacific Northwest has changed from the time that I lived there. In the South, where I reside the normal greeting is “Have a Blessed Day.”
The first words I learned in Arabic were en shallah which means God willing.

 

[jimkhong]

Firstly, be careful of what you wish for. I presume most posters have in mind the extreme non-tolerant strand of Islam that they believe require reform. Please note that this strand of Islam is a relatively recent innovation, being the fruit of a reform movement that started just two centuries ago. Wahabism, which is the main export of Saudi Arabia after oil (Saudi oil funds many mosques all over the world which teaches their strand of Islam), feels that their contemporaries deviated from the original Islam and takes a literal reading of the Quran. On must understand that stemming from a belief that the Quran is written by the hand of God himself, there is no human context to the Quran (unlike Christians who places the Bible within events of human history), a literal reading is a logical conclusion to such a belief. With a literal reading of the Quran, it is not difficult to find passages that condemns those who do not agree with them - not just non-Muslims but also Muslims with different views such as Shias and liberal Muslims.

We should not look at Islam as a mirror to Christianity but more close to Orthodox Jews. Muslims are supposed to scrupulously follow every prescription of the Quranic Law. Sounds familiar? There is one feature of traditional Islam, though, different from Orthodox Judaism that require (maybe) a reform for it to fit into a liberal democracy - Islam as a theocracy, that there is no separation of Mosque and State in Islam. As a result, it is sometimes difficult to separate which Islamic practices truly religious in nature and which is for the preservation of political power of Muslims as a whole or the incumbent in particular.

As such, I do not see reform in Islam on the same path as the Christian Reformation but more similar to the liberalisation of Judaism with the emergence of Progressive and Liberal Jews. For that a few changes in in Muslim mindset has to happen:

(1) Decoupling the Saudi strand of Islam as the default understanding of Islam. In some places such as Indonesia, that countering has started. But as Wahabism provide a complete answer, the model of Islam it seeks to supplant should also update itself to modern liberal democratic and capitalist world.

(2) Non-literal interpretations of the Quran. For this, the Quran must be seen in its human context so that its interpretation can be updated. Seeing the human context means that some passages can be accepted as overtaken by events and no longer apply (just like mainstream Christians now look at Paul’s injunction for wives to be deferential to their husbands as no longer relevant). So the idea that it was written by God’s hand must go.

(3) Separation of Mosque and State, which will bring in notion of equal citizenship belonging to a nation state. Current view is that the State is an Islamic one based on Quranic values, which then seeks to preserve Islamic supremacy over other religions, which are tolerated (advanced in the medieval world but a bit outdated today).

Most Muslims is liberal democracies have managed to make adjustments (with a few exceptions) and I believe such a transition is possible. I used to think that further education would bring Muslims into the modern thinking on religion but that would discount the high social pressure on Muslims in Muslim societies to conform to conventional Muslim thinking. While Islam is not monolithic and has no central authority, it is amazing how conformist it can be.

The question for us is how we, as cousins in Abraham, help them on their journey.

 

[KathleenGee]

Thank you for your wise reflections.

I also read Hillaire Belloc’s ‘Mohammedans’, who foresaw the ascendancy of Islam returning back in the 1930’s. Prior, It was the Turks who instructed the Nazis in how to transport unwanted populations in pogroms, learning from the disposal of the Armenians.

I look at what the plight has been for the Egyptian Copts, the great decrease of Christian populations in the Middle East, the experiences Americans are having with Muslims across the country, as well in how our country is treating Catholics and violating conscience.

I don’t trust what is happening, and turn to my faith for refuge.