Tuesday, November 28, 2006

A MUSLIM REFORMER?

There's news that the rather quiet "moderate" Muslims indeed have hope in their future. And imagine this: that hope is coming from France. Former Marseilles Mufti Soheib Bencheikh has announced that "Islam must be criticized, just as Christianity was [criticized] during the Enlightenment." He goes on to say that "Islam is a message for all humanity&$151;therefore it is not the property of Muslims [alone]."

Born in Saudi Arabia in 1961, Dr. Bencheikh believes that French-style secularism is a necessary precondition for the reform of Islam, and he calls on both Muslims and non-Muslims to participate in critiquing Islam, reinterpreting its holy texts, combating fundamentalism, and helping Islam adapt to the modern era.

Believing that Islam—which was founded with an emphasis on tribal society— has become obsolete, Bencheikh points out that the virilent form of political Islam sweeping the globe today is heresy and can be traced back to the 1960s, a time when most of the Muslim countries began modernizing politically and militarily, while retaining a rigid grip on the general population.

Read more. And let's hope that this special voice of reason survives an almost certain fatwa once the Muslim street catches wind of this criticism of their death cult.

Others will still say that reform is not the answer. Reading about Muslims making conciliatory statements may feel encouraging. After all, the Muslim world is not monolithic. Many decent men, women and children live in dar al-Islam and would be fine citizens under non-Islamic forms of governance.

Unfortunately, Islam itself will not allow them to flourish. It's improbable that Islam can undergo anything resembling a Reformation. Islam is inflexible and rigid as a system, has no non-violent and spiritual role model like Jesus of Nazareth at the center of its belief system and is devoid of appeals to higher ethical standards, like the Ten Commandments or the Golden Rule. It lacks reflection, personal responsibility, free will and empathy.

Islam can't be bent into something new.

It's encouraging to hear that some people will openly question the motives and opportunism of the radicalized. But once the chatter starts it is doubtful to stop at a 'kinder, gentler Islam' or 'Islam as a billion points of light'.

Instead, a vigorous backlash could show the Dhimmi West just how serious these "true believers" are about pushing Israel into the sea, ransacking Europe, posting the Islamic flag on the White House lawn, and destroying the infidel wherever he finds them. Islam as it is written in the Koran is more than a religion. It reads clearly as a poliical ideology with a doctrine of Caliphite commanding Muslims to fight to establish a world of Islam controlled by an Islamic capital.

But by all means, let's do try reform before all hell breaks loose.

May God bless us all...

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