A place for all the Atheist bloggers out there.
Project Ijtihad and the Necessity of a Reform in Islam
(An abridged version of this article is previously published in Finnish in Vapaa Ajattelija/Free Thinker 6/2007)
By Jussi K. Niemelä
During the recent years we have noticed many alarming signs that Muslims are getting more radical around the world. Likewise, the violations of human rights happen every day in Islamist nations. At the 70th Anniversary meeting of the Finnish Freethinkers’ Union the question of global challenge of Islam was raised, though Dr. Marvin F. Zayed, an Islam critic from Canada, couldn’t arrive to Finland because of the bad weather conditions in Canada. Instead, the President of Finnish Freethinkers’ Union, Mr. Robert Brotherus, read Dr. Zayed’s speech from the paper Zayed had sent and the message was clear: secular humanists and freethinkers everywhere should strive for the same goal, that is, to try and suppress the dangerous forms of Islam. Fortunately also the Muslims are aware of the situation and a reform in Islam is already taking place.
Mr. Juha Kukkonen, the President of Helsinki Freethinkers, wrote recently about the problems fanatical faith causes in his excellent piece in the magazine Järjen Ääni (The Voice of Reason) 3/2007. According to Kukkonen, “a freethinker is a thinker who bases her thinking on reason. She bases her thinking on a free use of reason, facts, inquiry and even questioning the regular patterns of thinking.”
Kukkonen writes that even if a freethinker were to be labelled as utopian and naive, she would have to cling to curiosity, inquiry-mindedness and peacefulness – a freethinker’s ideals. Kukkonen emphasizes that to aspire to world peace and to solve the conflicts between religious fundamentalists and supporters of an open society is so important in itself that freethinkers should take advantage of their rationalist outlook to reach these goals.
Recognizing and acknowledging the problems
According to Mr. Kukkonen, to solve the possible conflicts we should deploy the problem-solving model of a freethinker: “let’s recognize and acknowledge the problems, recognize and acknowledge the conflicts of interests, discuss peacefully, openly and rationally about the facts and conflicts of interests and strive for a compromise that suits everyone.”
In his Anniversary speech Mr. Brotherus read Dr. Marvin F. Zayed raises some basic problems that we face in initiating the open discussion. The freethinkers, secular humanists, critical minds and liberal writers in Europe will be accused of many things should they criticise Muslim fundamentalism. They will be accused for supporting the far-right politics and fascism and opposition of multiculturalism, pluralistic society, rights of the minorities, freedom of religion, immigration and integration of the immigrants.
According to Zayed, a major hindrance for an open discussion about the problems in Islam is also the probable labelling of critical voices as supporters of Christian fundamentalism, Catholicism or other religious views that could be termed as “crusade-mentality”.
Likewise, those who criticise Islam are going to be accused of supporting the aggressive foreign policy of the USA and the blatant violations of human rights it entails.
Zayed emphasizes that fear is a very important hindrance to open discussion. Even though it is invisible, it is probably the most powerful thing in people’s minds. Actually this fear might be called political correctness and we see signs of it every day in the ranks of academics, politicians and intellectuals. They are afraid of hurting Muslims’ feelings and the afore-mentioned accusations. These people want to be seen as tolerant, but the baby goes out with the bathwater.
Fortunately some courageous thinkers have managed to break through the walls of political correctness and bring the problems of Islam into open discussion.
Especially a Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali has tackled the human rights violations she bumped into every day while working as an interpreter in the Netherlands. Hirsi Ali’s books The Caged Virgin and Infidel have evoked quite a lot of discussion and because of these books the problems of Islamism and the failure of integrating Muslim immigrants in European countries are finally acknowledged and people are already timidly whispering about them.
Yet, while Western intellectuals and power-wielding politicians basically remain dead-silent about the acute problems caused by the fundamentalist interpretations of Islam and its quotidian practises lest they hurt the feelings of moderate Muslims, the far-right views and nationalistic xenophobia gain popularity. Thus it seems quite evident that political correctness benefits both the far-right politics and Muslim fundamentalism.
Irshad Manji and Raquel Evita Saraswati
Project Ijtihad, launched by the Canadian intellectual Irshad Manji, doesn’t strive for nothing less than a radical reform in Islam. Manji is a Muslim, but nevertheless liberal and as politically incorrect as can be. She is openly lesbian and travels the world lecturing about the need for a reform in Islam. Manji also writes poignant criticism of Islam in many important American newspapers and magazines and her book The Trouble with Islam Today is definitely worth reading.
Manji is a dazzling human rights activist and Ayaan Hirsi Ali is her friend. Project Ijtihad is a very important Islamist reform movement also because they are willing to take atheists and freethinkers into their ranks and indeed actively seek to work with them.
Executive Assistant to Irshad Manji and Coordinator of Project Ijtihad, Raquel Evita Saraswati – who like Manji is openly liberal and lesbian – tells that they themselves think that some moderate Muslims are a problem.
- We don't identify as moderate Muslims. We identify as reform-minded Muslims. Moderate Muslims do denounce terror to be sure, but often refuse to acknowledge that religion plays any role; and refuse to call out members of their own community for the violence committed under the banner of Islam.
According to Saraswati, many, not all, moderates would rather brush the ills facing their faith under the Persian rug, so to speak, rather than raise their voices against them. Moderate Muslims are often so busy chanting "Islam means peace" that they forget that they must also own up to the things about their faith and their faithful that are not so peaceful.
- We believe that Islam already has the raw material to be reasonable, humane and just - but we also know that silence is an accomplice to injustice.
Saraswati also says that they refuse to be silent and allow those with malignant intentions to have their way with Islam.
What is ijtihad?
Ijtihad is Islam’s lost tradition of independent thinking. In the early centuries of Islam, thanks to the spirit of ijtihad, 135 schools of thought thrived. Inspired by ijtihad, Muslims gave the world inventions from the astrolabe to the university. So much of we consider "western" pop culture came from Muslims: the guitar, mocha coffee, even the ultra-Spanish expression "Ole!" (which has its root in the Arabic word for God, "Allah").
Toward the end of the 11th century, the "gates of ijtihad" were closed for entirely political reasons. During this time, the Muslim empire from Iraq in the east to Spain in the west was going through a series of internal upheavals. Dissident denominations were popping up and declaring their own runaway governments, which posed a threat to the main Muslim leader -- the caliph. Based in Baghdad, the caliph cracked down and closed ranks.
The 135 afore-mentioned schools of thought were deliberately reduced to four pretty conservative schools of thought. This led to a rigid reading of the Koran as well as to a series of legal opinions – fatwas – that scholars could no longer overturn or even question, but could now only imitate. To this very day, imitation of medieval norms has trumped innovation in Islam. Project Ijtihad aspires to revive ijtihad to update Islam for the 21st century.
Project Ijtihad’s Vision and Mission
Project Ijtihad is a charitable initiative to promote the spirit of Ijtihad, Islam’s own tradition of critical thinking, debate and dissent. They support a positive vision of Islam that embraces diversity of choices, expression and spirituality.
What is important as far as the freethinker movement is concerned is the fact that to achieve their goals, Project Ijtihad will build the world’s most inclusive network of reform-minded Muslims and non-Muslim allies. Thus Project Ijtihad welcomes secular humanists and rationalists along with reform-minded Muslims.
One especially positive aspect of Project Ijtihad is their activity in sparking taboo busting debates both online and in person. To implement this, an open discussion is necessary and secular humanists and freethinkers are more than welcome to participate. Rational thinking that is based on the free use of reason, facts, inquiry and even questioning the regular patterns of thinking Juha Kukkonen writes about is like directly from Project Ijtihad’s program.
Saraswati says that ijtihad is not literally or clearly written in the Koran. The command to think, reflect and analyze, however, appears three times as frequently as anything saying what is absolutely right or wrong. According to Saraswati, this indeed serves as quite the command to ijtihad.
Ijtihad has been around for centuries - in the legalistic sense. It is practiced by a 'mujtahid', to interpret the Koran and sunnah when questions arise.
- What we are trying to revive is not the legalistic implementation of ijtihad, but the spirit of ijtihad. During Islam's golden age, scholars encouraged even their students to use ijtihad to draw their own peaceful conclusions, Saraswati explicates.
Ph.D. Umar Faruq Abd-Allah mentions in his article ”Innovation and Creativity in Islam” (Nawawi Foundation 2006) that ijtihad is an Islamic duty of the first magnitude. Moreover, professor Ingrid Mattson – an expert on Islamic law – has emphasized that ijtihad in its legalistic sense is much too suppressing and narrow concept. Along and sometimes even in opposition with this ijtihad should be practiced among comedians, poets and musicians. They should indeed be actively encouraged to create novel perspectives to Islamist reality. Mattson wants people to test the boundaries and openly discuss about the limits to freedom (see http://www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/sr125.html).
In the March 2007 Manji and Saraswati published the following statement: "Practicing Muslims are an integral and valuable part of the global community, as well as essential to any movement for secular, faith-respecting states that work toward universal human rights. We acknowledge the peaceful observance of Islam to be a legitimate choice for many. We stand by those who embrace an Islam that defends critical thinking, empathy, justice, and non-violence. They are our allies, and we are theirs."
This statement sounds truly great in the ears of a person who supports universal human rights and rational thinking Juha Kukkonen demands!
The story goes that once Irshad Manji asked Ayaan Hirsi Ali, why she wouldn’t think Manji was naïve for sticking with Islam. “Don’t go”, Hirsi Ali replied, “Islam needs you.” I would like to add that secular humanism and the freethinker movement need both Saraswati and Manji. Their moral courage can't be matched and without Project Ijtihad the world peace and aspiring to universal human rights will remain only a dream.
More information and the original pdf of the article in Finnish at:
http://www.irshadmanji.com/project-ijtihad
By Jussi K. Niemelä
During the recent years we have noticed many alarming signs that Muslims are getting more radical around the world. Likewise, the violations of human rights happen every day in Islamist nations. At the 70th Anniversary meeting of the Finnish Freethinkers’ Union the question of global challenge of Islam was raised, though Dr. Marvin F. Zayed, an Islam critic from Canada, couldn’t arrive to Finland because of the bad weather conditions in Canada. Instead, the President of Finnish Freethinkers’ Union, Mr. Robert Brotherus, read Dr. Zayed’s speech from the paper Zayed had sent and the message was clear: secular humanists and freethinkers everywhere should strive for the same goal, that is, to try and suppress the dangerous forms of Islam. Fortunately also the Muslims are aware of the situation and a reform in Islam is already taking place.
Mr. Juha Kukkonen, the President of Helsinki Freethinkers, wrote recently about the problems fanatical faith causes in his excellent piece in the magazine Järjen Ääni (The Voice of Reason) 3/2007. According to Kukkonen, “a freethinker is a thinker who bases her thinking on reason. She bases her thinking on a free use of reason, facts, inquiry and even questioning the regular patterns of thinking.”
Kukkonen writes that even if a freethinker were to be labelled as utopian and naive, she would have to cling to curiosity, inquiry-mindedness and peacefulness – a freethinker’s ideals. Kukkonen emphasizes that to aspire to world peace and to solve the conflicts between religious fundamentalists and supporters of an open society is so important in itself that freethinkers should take advantage of their rationalist outlook to reach these goals.
Recognizing and acknowledging the problems
According to Mr. Kukkonen, to solve the possible conflicts we should deploy the problem-solving model of a freethinker: “let’s recognize and acknowledge the problems, recognize and acknowledge the conflicts of interests, discuss peacefully, openly and rationally about the facts and conflicts of interests and strive for a compromise that suits everyone.”
In his Anniversary speech Mr. Brotherus read Dr. Marvin F. Zayed raises some basic problems that we face in initiating the open discussion. The freethinkers, secular humanists, critical minds and liberal writers in Europe will be accused of many things should they criticise Muslim fundamentalism. They will be accused for supporting the far-right politics and fascism and opposition of multiculturalism, pluralistic society, rights of the minorities, freedom of religion, immigration and integration of the immigrants.
According to Zayed, a major hindrance for an open discussion about the problems in Islam is also the probable labelling of critical voices as supporters of Christian fundamentalism, Catholicism or other religious views that could be termed as “crusade-mentality”.
Likewise, those who criticise Islam are going to be accused of supporting the aggressive foreign policy of the USA and the blatant violations of human rights it entails.
Zayed emphasizes that fear is a very important hindrance to open discussion. Even though it is invisible, it is probably the most powerful thing in people’s minds. Actually this fear might be called political correctness and we see signs of it every day in the ranks of academics, politicians and intellectuals. They are afraid of hurting Muslims’ feelings and the afore-mentioned accusations. These people want to be seen as tolerant, but the baby goes out with the bathwater.
Fortunately some courageous thinkers have managed to break through the walls of political correctness and bring the problems of Islam into open discussion.
Especially a Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali has tackled the human rights violations she bumped into every day while working as an interpreter in the Netherlands. Hirsi Ali’s books The Caged Virgin and Infidel have evoked quite a lot of discussion and because of these books the problems of Islamism and the failure of integrating Muslim immigrants in European countries are finally acknowledged and people are already timidly whispering about them.
Yet, while Western intellectuals and power-wielding politicians basically remain dead-silent about the acute problems caused by the fundamentalist interpretations of Islam and its quotidian practises lest they hurt the feelings of moderate Muslims, the far-right views and nationalistic xenophobia gain popularity. Thus it seems quite evident that political correctness benefits both the far-right politics and Muslim fundamentalism.
Irshad Manji and Raquel Evita Saraswati
Project Ijtihad, launched by the Canadian intellectual Irshad Manji, doesn’t strive for nothing less than a radical reform in Islam. Manji is a Muslim, but nevertheless liberal and as politically incorrect as can be. She is openly lesbian and travels the world lecturing about the need for a reform in Islam. Manji also writes poignant criticism of Islam in many important American newspapers and magazines and her book The Trouble with Islam Today is definitely worth reading.
Manji is a dazzling human rights activist and Ayaan Hirsi Ali is her friend. Project Ijtihad is a very important Islamist reform movement also because they are willing to take atheists and freethinkers into their ranks and indeed actively seek to work with them.
Executive Assistant to Irshad Manji and Coordinator of Project Ijtihad, Raquel Evita Saraswati – who like Manji is openly liberal and lesbian – tells that they themselves think that some moderate Muslims are a problem.
- We don't identify as moderate Muslims. We identify as reform-minded Muslims. Moderate Muslims do denounce terror to be sure, but often refuse to acknowledge that religion plays any role; and refuse to call out members of their own community for the violence committed under the banner of Islam.
According to Saraswati, many, not all, moderates would rather brush the ills facing their faith under the Persian rug, so to speak, rather than raise their voices against them. Moderate Muslims are often so busy chanting "Islam means peace" that they forget that they must also own up to the things about their faith and their faithful that are not so peaceful.
- We believe that Islam already has the raw material to be reasonable, humane and just - but we also know that silence is an accomplice to injustice.
Saraswati also says that they refuse to be silent and allow those with malignant intentions to have their way with Islam.
What is ijtihad?
Ijtihad is Islam’s lost tradition of independent thinking. In the early centuries of Islam, thanks to the spirit of ijtihad, 135 schools of thought thrived. Inspired by ijtihad, Muslims gave the world inventions from the astrolabe to the university. So much of we consider "western" pop culture came from Muslims: the guitar, mocha coffee, even the ultra-Spanish expression "Ole!" (which has its root in the Arabic word for God, "Allah").
Toward the end of the 11th century, the "gates of ijtihad" were closed for entirely political reasons. During this time, the Muslim empire from Iraq in the east to Spain in the west was going through a series of internal upheavals. Dissident denominations were popping up and declaring their own runaway governments, which posed a threat to the main Muslim leader -- the caliph. Based in Baghdad, the caliph cracked down and closed ranks.
The 135 afore-mentioned schools of thought were deliberately reduced to four pretty conservative schools of thought. This led to a rigid reading of the Koran as well as to a series of legal opinions – fatwas – that scholars could no longer overturn or even question, but could now only imitate. To this very day, imitation of medieval norms has trumped innovation in Islam. Project Ijtihad aspires to revive ijtihad to update Islam for the 21st century.
Project Ijtihad’s Vision and Mission
Project Ijtihad is a charitable initiative to promote the spirit of Ijtihad, Islam’s own tradition of critical thinking, debate and dissent. They support a positive vision of Islam that embraces diversity of choices, expression and spirituality.
What is important as far as the freethinker movement is concerned is the fact that to achieve their goals, Project Ijtihad will build the world’s most inclusive network of reform-minded Muslims and non-Muslim allies. Thus Project Ijtihad welcomes secular humanists and rationalists along with reform-minded Muslims.
One especially positive aspect of Project Ijtihad is their activity in sparking taboo busting debates both online and in person. To implement this, an open discussion is necessary and secular humanists and freethinkers are more than welcome to participate. Rational thinking that is based on the free use of reason, facts, inquiry and even questioning the regular patterns of thinking Juha Kukkonen writes about is like directly from Project Ijtihad’s program.
Saraswati says that ijtihad is not literally or clearly written in the Koran. The command to think, reflect and analyze, however, appears three times as frequently as anything saying what is absolutely right or wrong. According to Saraswati, this indeed serves as quite the command to ijtihad.
Ijtihad has been around for centuries - in the legalistic sense. It is practiced by a 'mujtahid', to interpret the Koran and sunnah when questions arise.
- What we are trying to revive is not the legalistic implementation of ijtihad, but the spirit of ijtihad. During Islam's golden age, scholars encouraged even their students to use ijtihad to draw their own peaceful conclusions, Saraswati explicates.
Ph.D. Umar Faruq Abd-Allah mentions in his article ”Innovation and Creativity in Islam” (Nawawi Foundation 2006) that ijtihad is an Islamic duty of the first magnitude. Moreover, professor Ingrid Mattson – an expert on Islamic law – has emphasized that ijtihad in its legalistic sense is much too suppressing and narrow concept. Along and sometimes even in opposition with this ijtihad should be practiced among comedians, poets and musicians. They should indeed be actively encouraged to create novel perspectives to Islamist reality. Mattson wants people to test the boundaries and openly discuss about the limits to freedom (see http://www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/sr125.html).
In the March 2007 Manji and Saraswati published the following statement: "Practicing Muslims are an integral and valuable part of the global community, as well as essential to any movement for secular, faith-respecting states that work toward universal human rights. We acknowledge the peaceful observance of Islam to be a legitimate choice for many. We stand by those who embrace an Islam that defends critical thinking, empathy, justice, and non-violence. They are our allies, and we are theirs."
This statement sounds truly great in the ears of a person who supports universal human rights and rational thinking Juha Kukkonen demands!
The story goes that once Irshad Manji asked Ayaan Hirsi Ali, why she wouldn’t think Manji was naïve for sticking with Islam. “Don’t go”, Hirsi Ali replied, “Islam needs you.” I would like to add that secular humanism and the freethinker movement need both Saraswati and Manji. Their moral courage can't be matched and without Project Ijtihad the world peace and aspiring to universal human rights will remain only a dream.
More information and the original pdf of the article in Finnish at:
http://www.irshadmanji.com/project-ijtihad
Comment
About
© 2009 Created by Jaakko Wallenius on Ning. Create a Ning Network!
You need to be a member of Atheist Bloggers to add comments!
Join this Ning Network