Why Islam Cannot Reform


By Bernie on 28 Apr 2008




read-speaker

A Muslim child marches with a toy gun to protest the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan after Friday prayers in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Oct.19, 2001. (AP Photo/Pavel Rahman)

There are deluded Jews and Christians who believe that the barbaric attacks against non-Muslims and even fellow Muslims alike throughout the world are being perpetrated by members of a small, extreme, perverted brand of Islam and that "true" Islam is probably just like modern Christianity or Judaism; that all that is needed is for moderate Muslims to take back their religion from the radicals.


Then there are the deluded Jews and Christians who have actually read the Quran for themselves and realize that the barbarity of Muslim terror we see today is indeed rooted in the very essence of Islam and argue that we must not condemn the religion when all that is needed is for Islam to go through a reformation and modernization as Christianity and Judaism has done.

But an expert in religion disagrees:

The QandO Blog,
11 Jan 2006,
Pope says Islam can’t reform

Now Pope Benedict XVI has let it be known that he does not believe Islam can reform. This we learn from the transcript of a January 5 US radio interview with one of Benedict's students and friends, Father Joseph Fessio, SJ, the provost of Ave Maria University in Naples, Florida, posted on the Asia Times Online forum by a sharp-eyed reader. For the pope to refute the fundamental premise of US policy is news of inestimable strategic importance, yet a Google News scan reveals that not a single media outlet has taken notice of what Fessio told interviewer Hugh Hewitt last week. No matter: still and small as Benedict's voice might be, it carries further than earthquake and whirlwind.


There are Muslims who believe that Islam can reform but they too are deluded:

FaithFreedom.org,
Why Can't Islam be Reformed?

This is the position of many modern Muslims, including Irshad Manji the author of “What Is Wrong with Islam, Today”. A great number of Muslims realize there is something wrong with Islam, but they erroneously believe the problem can be solved through the miracle of reinterpretation; and that they can keep the Quran and believe in Muhammad but somehow do the opposite of what he did and said and still call themselves Muslims.
...
You ask: "Can Islam be reformed?" No, it can't! To reform Islam you have to first get rid of Muhammad and second get rid of the Quran. You have to take out a great portion of that book which is violent. The rest is nonsense and absurdity. But this you can't do, because you have no authority to do such a thing. Muhammad said that he has perfected his religion (Q. 5:3). How can you improve something, which is perfect? You can't change the Quran. You can't reform it. All you can do is to reinterpret and, for example pretend, "slay the unbelievers wherever you find them" means something else.


Then there is the website Muslims Against Sharia who argue that the Quran is not the literal word of Allah; that Islam, in its present form, is not compatible with principles of freedom and democracy; that Muslims must remove all the evil passages from Islamic religious texts; that there is no one religion that is superior to another; that Sharia Law must be abolished; that Seventh Century practices such as stoning, cutting off body parts, marrying and/or having sex with children or animals must be condemned; and hundreds of other suggestions to make Islam more like Christianity or Judaism.

If somehow one could actually change one letter of a book whose wording letter for letter was fixed by no one but Allah, and dutifully followed the advice of Muslims Against Sharia and actually purged Islam of all of its barbarity then we would have in our hands a slim book with the Title "The Quran" and a sole, blank page bound in leather.

But this would not be enough, the other leg of Islam, the Sunnah is the second source of Islamic jurisprudence without which one cannot practice Islam. The Sunnah: the way of the prophet, his sayings, deeds, etc. One could compare these two legs of Islam to Christianity: the Quran, or the word of God, is like the Old Testament, and the Sunnah, or the deeds and sayings of Mohammed, are like the Gospels: the sayings and deeds of Jesus.

But while the deeds and sayings of Jesus are of humility, love, and peace, the deeds and sayings of Mohammed are of narcissism, hate, and military conquest. While the message of Jesus is "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone," the message of Mohammed is "Stone all those who disbelieve." No, I'm afraid that all of the Sunnah must be purged as well.

"But," you may protest, "if we remove all the evil from the Quran and excise all that is vile in the Sunnah, then there will be nothing left to follow in Islam!"

Precisely.

As to what happens to Muslims who try to practice even the slightest deviation from the absolute written word of Allah:

Reuters,
28 Apr 2008,
Hardliners torch "heretical" Indonesian mosque-police

Hundreds of hardline Indonesian Muslims burnt a mosque early on Monday belonging to a sect that has been branded heretical by most Muslims, police said.

The attack in West Java's Sukabumi district came after a government team recommended this month the Ahmadiyya sect be banned because its teachings deviate from the central tenets of Islam.


I believe that the government in Indonesia has a perfect right to ban a religious group because its teachings deviate from the central tenets of Islam.

I believe we in America and Europe should follow their example and likewise ban all of Islam because its teachings deviate from the central tenets of modern civilization.



Click on the Print










Anyone may republish this article for non-commercial use without asking my permission. I make it easy, see details here.

Related Posts with Thumbnails

Comments



Hey, leave a comment - if this is your first time here, please read my Comment Policy HERE.


Comments are now located at the top of the article











HOME



Info




FAQ/About Me

subscribe to my feedSubscribe to this blog's feed

subscribe to comment feedSubscribe to comments feed

Search/Archives

My Blogroll

Site Policies

Testimonials

Print Friendly Articles

My Articles in Danish


Site Stats


users online



View My Stats





Shameless Advertising


This is what Bernie is Reading Now



Recent Comments


Buttons & Widgets


Blogarama - The Blogs DirectoryPolitics blogsGovernment BlogsPolitics blogs Advice Blog Directory Politics Blogs
Locations of visitors to this page



TopOfBlogs


Blogs That Link to Me:


123beta
A collection of things...
Always on Watch
Animal Magnetism
Apropos of Nothing
Bare Naked Islam
Basil’s Blog
BelchSpeak
Blazing Cat Fur
Blogging for a free world
BlogWrath
Celestial Offerings
Commonsense & Wonder
Cristy Li
Daily Blasphemies
David Drake
Die rather than betray trust
DiveDesk
DragonLady’s World
Eclecticity
Empyreum Cœlum
Europe News
Fausta’s Blog
Fiery Spirited Zionist
foolocracy
Further Adventures of Indigo Red
Gates of Vienna
GDCritter
Geoff's Blog
GM's Place
Gneu.org
Gummihund/ Rubberdog and a proud Orangutan
Hard to Swallow
Huff-Watch
Infidelio
Infidels Are Cool
Infidel Bloggers Alliance
Intergalactic Source of Truth
Israel Matzav
Israeli Girl
Jewish Preppers
JewPI
Jihadi Du Jour
Leather Penguin
Maggie’s Notebook
Mesopotamia West
MFS - The Other News
mlah.us
Monkey in the Middle
Muellerstuff
My Gripes of Wrath
No Apology
nothing to laugh at
Nuke's
Oswald Bastable’s Ranting
Outside the Camp
Pakshahara
Project 2,996
Prophet Mo was a Pedo
Prune Juice Media
RADARSITE
Real Americans Defend Israel
Right Nation
Right Pundits
Right Truth
Right-wing Agenda
Rightjab
Rosemary’s Thoughts
Sherryx’s Weblog
Shimshon 9
Simply Jews
So Far, So Good ...So What!
Something and Half of Something
Squid Thoughts
Stop Islamic Conquest
Stop Raping Israel
StormBringer
Stuck on Stupid
SumanSpeaks
Synopsis
Tasty Infidelicacies
TAYLOR TOPICS
The Amboy Times
The Astute Bloggers
The Christian Defender
The Infidel Task Force
The Lasso of Truth
The Lambeth Walk
The Mindset
The Nose on your Face
THE OUTRAGED SPLEEN OF ZION
The Political Commentator
The Right Nation
The Right Perspective
The Right Place
The Sandman
The Sassy Tn’T PoLITicallY InCorrect
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER
The TexasFred Blog
The Trouble With Angels
The Unreligious Right
The Virtuous Republic
The World According to Carl
Theo Spark
Third World County
Thunder Pig
Treppenwitz
Veritas Universalis
Western Civilization and Culture
wine women and transcendence
World Challenges for the XXIst century
Zilla of the Resistance

More Shameless Advertising





Miscellanea


Kicked off LGF - image courtesy http://www.therudenews.com/archives/5922 Where Islam belongs - in the trash heap of history

Newsodrome - Niche News, Top Stories




Referrals (last 127 days)





Plank's Constant