March 16, 2016
IN RETIREMENT, IN DALLAS:
Where is Islam's Martin Luther? : Review: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, 'Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now' (David Bahr, March 13, 2016, Free Beacon)In a statement that would appear to undercut her contention that the locus of trouble in the Muslim world lies in sacred books, Hirsi Ali notes that:
I believe that a Reformation is not merely imminent; it is now under way...recall the three factors that were crucial to the success of the Protestant Reformation: technological change, urbanization, and the interests of a significant number of European states in backing Luther's challenge to the status quo. All three are present in the Muslim world today.
Note that these are socio-economic forces, not doctrinal ones. One wonders if, perhaps, Hirsi Ali might have strengthened her approach to taming the more pernicious forces inherent in Islam by more strongly invoking the spirit of Locke than Luther? And though she concentrates--briefly--on Locke's understanding of natural right and religious toleration as keys to the success of the West, it seems probable that it is Locke's blueprint for a commercial republic that would be most useful in assisting Mecca Muslims unshackle themselves from more astringent forms of their religion. As Hirsi Ali sums up:
[W]hile Islam's problems are indeed deep and structural, Muslim people are like everyone else in one important respect: most want a better life for themselves and their children. And increasingly they have good reasons to doubt that the Medina Muslims can deliver it.
I noted at the outset that Heretic is ambitious and provocative. But here, at the end, I might also add that the book is intellectually light given its proposed task of doctrinal reform. To meet the challenges posed by interpretations of a book held to have been revealed by God, what may convince most Mecca Muslims (absent the slow liberalization of markets and mores)--and is most glaringly absent from Hirsi Ali's argument--are interpretative counterarguments bolstered by Qur'anic evidence. In her Appendix entitled "Muslim Dissidents and Reformers," a pithy list of dissident clerics is given, along with their brief biographical details and current reform projects. This section, spanning a mere four pages, contains the fodder of what might have been the subject of a more interesting book: mapping the current state of doctrinal/textual reform in the Islamic world.
Posted by Orrin Judd at March 16, 2016 6:51 AM