towards a beginning of Islamic renaissance

[livinginiran]

There's this guy that used to be an important figure in the government after the revolution in Iran. He is Abdolkarim Soroush. Recently, he has began to openly do some discussions with the traditional religious figures in Iran, and I find it really encouraging. He is more on the Sufism side, believing that Koran is not the exact word of God. It's

Comments

[livinginiran]

Hi.

Well, there's a lot going on in these discussions, and I can't write about all of them.

But I think you'd find this interview interesting, as it directly talks about your question:
http://www.drsoroush.com/English/Interviews/E-INT-The%20Word%20of%20Mohammad.html

Personally, I think Koran shouldn't be followed as a step by step instruction forever. It should be understood based on the culture of its own time and applied to modern life in a modern fashion. But that's my personal opinion.

[agentelrond]

As a self-described Christian, that's how I feel about the Bible.

[gkozlov]

Seinfeld? How do you watch it? On the internet?

[livinginiran]

Nope. On the TV...

[gkozlov]

I really should read your posts more often. In former USSR before Gorbachev people could have easily be arrested for watching "enemy" programs. Well, Seinfeld is harmless, of course, but who knows what kind of info you can get on TV or on internet. KGB used to be extremely strict about that. Like my grandfather's uncle was arrested in 1948 for listening to an american radio station. There should be a lot of political opposition in Iran nowdays, or at least underground.

[gkozlov]

Oops! You in the States now, are you?

[anonymous]

Listen sweety i hope you get my comment I'm Tunisian and i don't know if you know it or no anyway it's a country with a majority of muslims and unlike Iranian muslims who are shiit ours are suniit and this little detail makes all the diffrence that influences religious vision and interpretation of the text and the Tunisian Islamic heritage is rich with important sufi precursors such as Abou el Hassan el Chathli and many others i doubt you know and sufism is a relgious state where the sufi love of God is extremely powerful and overwhelming that it makes him or her transcend his own physicality and he becomes more in touch with his inner soul and sufism has nothing to do with mr Abdolkarim opinion about koran which are secular thoughts mostly adopted by non believers and they are completely free in their choices of course so you can call this guy liberal you can call him revolutionary or whatever but he has nothing to do with sufism