ON THE EVOLUTION OF ISLAM

SLOW BURN

The New York Review of Books has an excellent review of five recent books on Islam under the title "How to Understand Islam".  It's a piece that provides a useful juxtaposition of where Islam's evolution in the modern world is today vs., what other major religions went through, with a lot of tumult and civilian blood-shed, a few centuries ago.

"Whereas historical criticism of the Bible has been accepted by most Protestants (except for fundamentalist die-hards) as well as by Reform Judaism and, belatedly, by the Catholic Church (following the Second Vatican Council of 1962–1965), "higher criticism" of the Koran has yet to take root despite the impressive achievements of individual scholars such as the late Fazlur Rahman, Mohammed Arkoun, and Farid Esack (all of whom work, or have worked, in Western universities). For Küng,

It can only help Islamic faith if Islamic scholars begin to tackle the historical problems. This can still be dangerous for a Muslim today, just as a heterodox view was for a Catholic at the height of the Inquisition or for a liberal Protestant in Calvin's Geneva.

What is needed, he concludes, elaborating on the term made popular by Thomas Kuhn, is a "paradigm shift" toward modernization comparable to those that occurred in the Christian and Jewish traditions."

It goes on to explain:

"Like other religious systems, Islam has no option but to enter the waters of post-Enlightenment modern society, a universal milieu where

religion is no longer, as it was in the Middle Ages and the Reformation, an institution set over the social system to guarantee its unity, but merely a factor, a sphere, a one part-system among several.

There are precedents for this necessary paradigm shift—for example in the expansion from the Arab empire with its limited cultural horizons to the world religion Islam eventually became, incorporating the non-Arab peoples who now make up the vast majority of Muslims."

Even though this has no doubt started to occur within wide swathes of Islamic communities in a number of countries like Turkey, India, Indonesia, amongst others, the core governance institutions within Islam have yet to fully make this transition, much like it's Christian counter-parts did so long ago.

Given current average life expectancies in the U.S., I have an outside shot at seeing this start to happen first hand, perhaps around the time I bid farewell to this life.  That'd be around 2045 or so.

More likely than not, I'm apt to miss it in this life-time.

But it's helpful to read about how it may happen eventually.

Comments

[Brian Hayes]

Acknowledging paradigm requires us to face ambiguity. The fearful cannot. 'New' requires a gentle invitation. We left the Inquisition upon our questions not our answers. To encourage producing a new studio, yes, the manufacture of fantastic, new ideas for these strife-encrusted men just off a donkey, and their children learning dust, their women keeping must, once many years ago with whiskey and lunch in Tiburon, I begged for a new media company in the Persian Gulf, a Big Yellow Bird, a Sesame Street quacking, a strip of Vegas' neon, Walt's gentler Disney, something more than cardamom and thickened chickens, for and until we communicate we are not interested in War, but it seems we first must convince ourselves.