Muslim Reformers

Nicholas Weeks

Nicholas Weeks

Bodhicitta
Messages
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83
Location
California
https://muslimreformmovement.org

Around 2015 reform-minded Muslims started this movement. Wonder how they are doing now?

“We are opposing a very real interpretation of Islam that espouses violence, social injustice, and political Islam. We have to take back the faith. And we have to take it back with the principles of peace, social justice, and human rights, women’s rights, and secularize governance… we’ve had enough and suspect you have also!”
 
muhammad_isa said:
You'd know better than me.
I live in the UK.
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I only know the website, yet you are a Muslim, I presume. Their last blog post was in 2021, so that suggests a weak online presence. But they do have a Contact page, so why don't you write them and ask whatever?
 
Nicholas Weeks said:
I only know the website, yet you are a Muslim, I presume. Their last blog post was in 2021, so that suggests a weak online presence. But they do have a Contact page, so why don't you write them and ask whatever?
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I have nothing really to ask them ... they are a US political organisation (Arizona), it would appear.
..but you live in California? Plenty of Muslims there, so I've heard.
A lot of Asians Muslims?
 
If they're not following the Quran, word for word, are they really Muslims?
 
Tibi continues in his Preface to Islamism and Islam:

Diversity is a most precious good. Can the Islamist mindset be admitted in the name of diversity? Can we trust Islamists who forgo violence to participate in good faith within a pluralistic, democratic system? I believe we cannot.
The second message of this book is that Islamism is a totalitarian ideology in Hannah Arendt’s understanding of this term. Its totalitarian outlook is deeply linked to its antisemitism. Antisemitism is, as Arendt notes on the first page of her famous book The Origins of Totalitarianism, “not merely the hatred of Jews” but a genocidal ideology. This distinction, too, is important: it is the difference between wishing to relegate Jews to a despised place in society and denying the Jewish people the right to exist.
 
Nicholas Weeks said:
Tibi continues in his Preface to Islamism and Islam:

Diversity is a most precious good. Can the Islamist mindset be admitted in the name of diversity? Can we trust Islamists who forgo violence to participate in good faith within a pluralistic, democratic system? I believe we cannot.
The second message of this book is that Islamism is a totalitarian ideology in Hannah Arendt’s understanding of this term. Its totalitarian outlook is deeply linked to its antisemitism. Antisemitism is, as Arendt notes on the first page of her famous book The Origins of Totalitarianism, “not merely the hatred of Jews” but a genocidal ideology. This distinction, too, is important: it is the difference between wishing to relegate Jews to a despised place in society and denying the Jewish people the right to exist.
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Is there a difference between Islamist and Muslim?
 
Interesting ... my hope is with "Islamophobia, Euro-Islam, Islamism and Post-Islamism: Changing Patterns of Secularism in Europe"
By Peter O’Brien PHD, Trinity University, Texas.

ABSTRACT
"Modern secularism ... prescribes that the state should treat all religions equally on condition that they and their adherents relinquish their theocratic aspirations and recognize the political sovereignty and superiority of man-made law.

"Convinced that the secular bargain undermines the moral virtue of society and its members, a small, fragmented, but nevertheless conspicuous number ofIslamists in Europe prefers to observe Islamic law in all walks of life, private and public.

"An increasingly vehement and vociferous contingent of Islamophobes avers that Islam is inherently incompatible with democracy and urges European governments to treat neither Islam nor Muslims equally, but rather suspiciously as real or potential threats to the wellbeing of European societies.

"In contrast, advocates of Euro-Islam insist that Islam can be reformed, like Christianity, to meet the requirements of modern secularism. This paper contends that elements of all three of these vying positions have found their way into policymaking targeting Muslims in several European lands.The resulting inconsistency and contradiction ...

"The latter, in particular, creates what Homi Bhabha terms a “third space” from which actors confronting cultural pluralism can freely and constructively explore cross-fertilizations and hybrid combinations with the potential to yield yet unimagined approaches and solutions to the problems of “super-diversity.” Just such creative hybridity does the paper identify among a younger generation of European Muslims whom many observers dub “Post-Islamists.”
 
Thomas said:
There's shades in everything ...
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I guess what I'm getting at is; if one is not following the dogmatic scripture (supposed word of god) of their chosen faith, are they not following something else?
 
Nicholas Weeks said:
Diversity is a most precious good. Can the Islamist mindset be admitted in the name of diversity?
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Can we accept the diversity that is Islam, and without prejudice? Muslims pray five times a day, they take fasting seriously, modesty and family is important to Muslims. Yet these are the qualities we overlook. In today's society, anything goes, marriage has little meaning, relationships seem more like temporary flings, porn is everywhere. Children grow up in broken families, when families break down, communities break down.

Not all diversity is good, faith communities should hold onto their values.
 
'Amir Alzzalam said:
I guess what I'm getting at is; if one is not following the dogmatic scripture (supposed word of god) of their chosen faith, are they not following something else?
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We-e-e-e-ll ... Judaism has a long history of debate over the meaning of Scripture (what's that old saying, two Jews, three opinions?), although some things are of course non-negotiable. Traditional Christianity East and West is quite clear that the Bible is not inerrant, but again, that does not mean it's open for anybody's opinion. Muhammed (pbuh) said there's more than one meaning to Scripture, to the point of saying that two apparently contradictory opinions were both right.

On the other hand, fundamentalists of every stripe will insist on the 'literal meaning', and more precisely on what they take the literal meaning to be. If you're on the receiving end of that, it's neither enchanting nor enlightening.
 
It appears you do not accept Dr Tibi's clear emphasis that Islamism is not Islam.

"Diversity is a most precious good. Can the Islamist mindset be admitted in the name of diversity? Can we trust Islamists who forgo violence to participate in good faith within a pluralistic, democratic system? I believe we cannot."

A reminder that in post #5 the publisher of Islamism and Islam gives via Look Inside, the entire Preface and several chapters of the book.
 
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I would have thought it a forgone conclusion that one can't reason with fundamentalists of any ilk, that's all – if you're looking for solutions, that's not the place.
 
This brave group of apostates supports WikiIslam and reformation of Islam:

"Ex-Muslims of North America is a non-profit organization that focuses on providing support for apostates from Islam and spreading awareness of the dangers behind militant Islam."

https://exmuslims.org

Study their Apostate report.
 
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Satan is the ape of God, they say -- but a monkey in silk is a monkey no less?
 
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