THE REFORMATION ROLLS ON:

When you examine the internal discussions among conservative Muslim leaders or pundits in America today, they don't come across as concocting some "Protocols of the Elders of Mecca." Instead of cheering for any creeping Shariah, they seem worried about a creeping liberalism within American Islam.

Read Mikaeel Ahmed Smith, for example. He's an imam in Virginia who has titled an internet article "A Spiritual Disease in American Muslims, Making Them Gods Above God." His criticism targets a new genre of Muslim bloggers and writers who he says "challenge or outright reject the traditionally normative Islamic view on social issues and Muslim life." These young people care less about traditional religious texts, the imam warns, because of "a rejection of any authority other than one's own intellect."

Or read Butheina Hamdah, an academic, who sees alarming signs of "liberal individualism" among American Muslim women. She thinks the hijab (the Islamic head scarf) is becoming a mere "cultural marker of identity" while losing its "deeper theological dimensions." That is why "trendy" or "sexy" versions of the hijab are emerging, she argues, while young Muslim women embrace feminist notions of "bodily autonomy" and "individual choice."

Perhaps nothing marks this liberal trend more than the skyrocketing acceptance of gay marriage, which, as a 2017 poll showed, is now stronger among American Muslims than among white evangelical Christians. It is also reflected in the pro-L.G.B.T.Q. stance of two new Muslim congresswomen, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar. (This month, Ms. Omar took a lesson in how to integrate into America's pluralist politics when she apologized, after heavy criticism from her own Democratic Party's leaders, for a tweet that insinuated that American support for Israel is fueled by money from a pro-Israel lobbying group. "Anti-Semitism is real and I am grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes," she said almost immediately, adding, "I unequivocally apologize.")

There are two distinct lines in this trend toward American values. One is a kind of anything-goes social liberalism, spearheaded by small groups like Muslims for Progressive Values. The other, larger line is a political liberalism that accepts a pluralist framework for society while preserving its own social and moral conservatism. Jonathan Brown, a convert to Islam and scholar of Islamic studies at Georgetown University, theorized the latter approach in a much-discussed article in which he accepted gay marriage of non-Muslims by making an analogy to traditional Muslim empires' noninterference in what he called "incestuous Zoroastrian marriages."

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