January 12, 2005
LET A HUNDRED LUTHERS BLOOM:
Syrian reformer rankles Islamists: As Islamic conservatism rises in Syria, one Muslim scholar rejects Islam's 'monopoly of salvation.' (Nicholas Blanford, 1/13/05, CS Monitor)
In a country where conservative Islamic sentiment is rising, Islamist scholar Mohammed Habash's moderate views strike a jarring chord.Dressed in a tailored tweed suit, he looks more like a college professor than the traditional image of an Islamic religious leader in robes and headdress. But Mr. Habash says he is indeed from the conservative tradition of Islam and was educated only in religious schools.
His interpretation of Islam, however, is anything but conservative. He promotes a reformist vision of Islam that accepts Western ideas, including secular forms of government. Women, he says, are permitted by Islam to receive the same level of education as men and to fully participate in public life, even as religious, political, and business leaders. He advocates peaceful resistance to the US-led occupation in Iraq, in contrast to some clerics in Syria's Sunni Muslim heartland who have encouraged the insurgency. And he rejects what he calls the "monopoly of salvation," the belief that Islam is the only true religion.
"We have to accept other religions," says Habash, director of the Center of Islamic Studies in Damascus. "Islam has to confirm what came before and not cancel [Judaism and Christianity] out. Also, it is not wrong to absorb new ideas from the West and East."
Posted by Orrin Judd at January 12, 2005 10:26 PM
"LET A HUNDRED LUTHER'S BLOOM"
LUTHERS - no apostrophe, methinks.
Posted by: Oswald Booth Czolgosz at January 13, 2005 12:40 AMOswald B.C. reminds us that misuse of the apostrophe is, Sociolinguistic tells us, a "marker," of grammatical cluelessness.
But turning to the topic, I submit that the suggestion that Islam suffers from a lack of "Luthers," misapprehends both phenomena.
Islam has been plagued by both a lack of exegetic and ecclesiatical authority and a surfeit of Koran-thumpers. This situation opens that faith up to change which is not progress, and subjects its adherents to church-state unification.
I should hope that it is sufficiently obvious by now that the desirable condition is a balance between church and state which checks the power of either to dominate either the individual of civil society.
Posted by: Lou Gots at January 13, 2005 6:17 AMOswald B.C. reminds us that misuse of the apostrophe is, Sociolinguistic tells us, a "marker," of grammatical cluelessness.
But turning to the topic, I submit that the suggestion that Islam suffers from a lack of "Luthers," misapprehends both phenomena.
Islam has been plagued by both a lack of exegetic and ecclesiatical authority and a surfeit of Koran-thumpers. This situation opens that faith up to change which is not progress, and subjects its adherents to church-state unification.
I should hope that it is sufficiently obvious by now that the desirable condition is a balance between church and state which checks the power of either to dominate either the individual of civil society.
Posted by: Lou Gots at January 13, 2005 6:18 AMTo the contrary, where the Church does not control the individuial the State has to.
Posted by: oj at January 13, 2005 8:33 AMOJ: well put, a quote for the ages
Posted by: JimGooding at January 13, 2005 11:06 AMOJ: Kindly consider the difference betreen domnation and control. The two swords are different, but each is a sword. Of course you are correct that those who kick against the easy yoke and light burden of the church must be crushed by the state.
The points remains that first, Islam suffers from too close an identity between church and state, and second, the Lutheranism, trhe surrender of the church to the state, had the same defect.
Posted by: Lou Gots at January 14, 2005 11:47 AMIt remains to be seen whether that's necessarily true of Sunni Islam--it obviously isn't of Shia--and the cases of Turkey, Indonesia, Bangladesh, etc., suggest it isn't.
Posted by: oj at January 14, 2005 11:51 AM