Islam in Crisis (part 1)

Bhitai: That is what I exactly meant. since Muslims can not be stopped from being a Muslim, therefore it can not be considered Muslims in crisis or in other words, there is no solution. That is why, the title is apt as Islam in Crisis.

I have stopped living in Islam by not following it, by not believing in god and by start liking another non-theistic religion.

tahmed:
[one should look at is the over-all spirit of the Quran, and that the over-all spirit is one of peace, mercy, fairness, respect for all faiths and the equality of all individual, male or female, rich or poor, muslim or nonmuslim]

Why then one has to read more than 1000 pages if this is the conclusion? I can very well accept all of this statement without reading Quran.

#4
mohar and RT, pls. enlighten us with regards to reformation in the Quran, and try to be specific... If you allow me I can point to some areas of the Quran that I would like to see your comprehension/critique of :

1. unity, i.e., rejection of duality and materialism(dialectic etc.)
2. justice at micro(personal) and macro(social) level
3. trends of history and lessons that need to be drawn from them
4. ethics
5. belief system (angels, books, qayamat)
6. rituals

hopefully we`ll hear some concrete stuff in the second part..

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the solution to Muslims in crisis could easily be suggested as `stop being a Muslim`
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``We all live in Islam, whatever form we choose to encourage ourselves.`` (Goethe, Letter to Adele Schopenhauer, 19.9.1831, WA IV, 49, 87)

Sameer, how can one stop living in islam, pls. enlighten...

mohar11 #4 I agree with the excerpt from this article that you provide about the Quran, i.e. not to take a single verse out of context. I have always emphasized that the context one should look at is the over-all spirit of the Quran, and that the over-all spirit is one of peace, mercy, fairness, respect for all faiths and the equality of all individual, male or female, rich or poor, muslim or nonmuslim.
I suggest YOU take note of this, and try and shed your prejudices about muslims and islam. (and please lets not start an argument on this. if you find it too hard to shed your prejuedices, that is fine and I have no desire to try and convince you otherwise).

Rashid Talib: Excellent article. It is indeed time that muslims stopped looking at the rear-view mirror, and stopped glorifying past muslim rulers (INCLUDING the first four caliphs). They have no standing in islam, and their form of government was primitive compared to the fine examples of modern democracy and democratic ideals.
PS: I wonder what you think of my response to mohar11 regarding the overall spirit of the Quran vs. isolated verses, incidentally, should you care to provide your views.

Brilliant! People like Mr Talib are Islam`s last hope.

Excerpts:
//...Rethinking the institutional status of the Quran is of prime importance. This is not simply a question of finding a verse in the Quran that suits the apologist’s purpose...//

Exactly. Apologists like tahmed and others should take note.

Very thorough and well intentioned article. I also look forward to reading the next part of it.

temporal:
I would rather agree with the author in saying about Islam in crisis instead of Muslims in crisis. The solution to Islam in crisis is perhaps reinterpretation or selectively following parts of it as author has mentioned vis-a-vis Quran but the solution to Muslims in crisis could easily be suggested as `stop being a Muslim` and the crisis will disappear. You know that is not going to happen except for few individuals.

I also diagree about lack of economic and political avenues availabilty as source of madrassah and infatuation with the mythical past. It is chicken and egg situation. The lack of economic opportunities and political suffocations are the result, to me, and not the solutions of madrassah and infatuation. Muslims are not the only ones who lack economic opportunities. Despite all the hoopla lately, the economic opportunities for average Indians are no better than Pakistanis but Hindu madrassah and glorious mythical past are rather new things in Hinduism - since Sangh parivar. China was also no different, North Korea and Mayanmar are no different. They can as justifiably blame economic exploitation and imperialism for their plight but have not resorted to terrorist activities against USA.

Madrassahs exist in lot most affluent Iran for a long time with a per capita at least 5 times that of Pakistan. Even more richer Saudi Arabia also have Wahabi madrassahs with their blind sheijh Abdul Aziz bin Baz becoming the head of amdina University. I seriously doubt that Muslims problems are so closely related to lack of economic opportunities.

A highly specialized surgeon or a retired general is hardly economically deprived individual. Yet, they treated OBL and other Al Qaeda clandestinely and retired generals like Hamid Gul openly support jihad and madrassah culture.

There has to be something inherently wrong with Islam when desi Muslims were wishing for Islamic Khilafat despite Kamal Ataturk in Turkey popularly ending it. There has to be something inherently wrong if retired general Mirza Aslam Beg still supports Khilafat for Ummah in his speech in Washington.

Well done!

I particularly appreciated the example of anti Semitism in the Catholic Church and how this ``principal`` manifested itself in state policy.

rashid:

…"an abdication of intellectual responsibility``…directly lays the blame at the Muslims…perhaps it would be better had you replaced Islam in Crisis with Muslims in Crisis…

…you have identified the fault lines …will look forward with interest to the parts to follow…specially on your suggestions to get out of the hermeneutic quagmire…

..of the the three themes you have identified, “…the status of the Quran, the ‘madrasa’ system of education, and nostalgia for a past golden age…” the latter two are directly related and proportional to the lack of economic and political avenues available to the masses…and are one and the same…in simpler words…the worse the conditions are for the practitioner the better the grounds for the growth of orthodoxy and fundamentalism

rgds,

t