Holy Crap!

[disturbed_kiwi]

I saw this story a moment ago and found it enthralling. Islam finally getting around to a reformation/modernisation of thought? Using textual criticism on the Hadiths (Its not saying they're looking at the Koran but its a step)?

That's big freaking news and I wonder how it will work... religion

Comments

[building7]

Every article I've read seems to have a very excited tone about it (even the BBC), but one has to wonder if that's only because the articles I'm reading are in English, not Arabic.

It's fairly common knowledge that prominent critics of Islam these days often end up dead, or constantly under the threat of it. What is to stop Iranian and Saudi clerics dismissing these new reformers as hellenised heretics?

Then again, popular changes in Islam have happened before. My understanding is that the current hardline militant interpretation only dates back to the thoughts of Sayyid Qutb in the 1950s.

It could be big. If it fizzles I won't exactly be surprised though...

[disturbed_kiwi]

One of the issues that has led Islam from being that center of philosophy in the past to the current repressive style, is that they had a tradition that new material can overrule old. This is basically trying to undo that and just go back to the 'peaceful' (well, given the secularising nature of the project, we'll just let that go for now huh?) nature of 'original' Islam.

And of course the hardliners will discount and discredit it. I'm sure many people discredited Martin Luther as well. Hopefully this sort of massive state sponsored change will lead to a similar sort of change in religion as that important religous event.

All I'm really curious about is how long will the blood last before it settles and we see what the general shape of Islam is. (Also consider the general shape of Christianity may differ wildly from the particular interests and beliefs of various prationers. So, camparison of effect or somesuch?)

[neutrino_cannon]

The biggest problem I see with yearning for a reformed Islam is that the particular variety of Islam that's causing all the ruckus is the reform school. "Fundamentalist" is a misleading term, inasmuch as it suggests that the mouthpieces of violence are preaching some ancient, unchanged version of Islam. They're not; they are preaching a relatively new iteration of the religion called Wahhabism, which is about as far away from typical Islam as Calvinism is from Catholicism.

[disturbed_kiwi]

Inasmuch as Islam has a reform school, being that it has a tradition of newer voices overruling the past. Elements of this are mentioned in the link. Applying textual and historical study to the Hadiths makes it easy to point out what has been introduced by subsequent cultures and I'd like to think that 'clearing away the junk' would be how Muslims would like to respond to it.

I note your point but also think about the iterations of Christianity in the large compared to earlier versions at various points in history.