Islam and a Reformation

          The Islamic religion is an extremely misunderstood religion in the Western part of the hemisphere. Here in the United States the only information we know about Islam is generally seen on the news and it is about the unrest and war occurring in the Arab world that is dominantly Islamic. What we don’t understand is the reason why Islam is so different than our own ideologies here in the United States and what the cause of the turmoil in that region is. Does Islam need to experience a reformation similar to the Protestant Reformation in the 16^th and 17^th centuries? This paper will attempt to answer that question, and delve into whether or not a reformation is possible or already happening. I will also be using the example of Turkey, which has shown to be a more moderate Islamic democracy.

            The idea of an Islamic reformation is not new. Although many of us don’t think of the reform of Islam specifically, it’s is safe to say that something needs to change in the Middle East for it to be safer for the people of the region. The question is where will that change come from. When I first started this research I thought that I had found the answer to all of the problems going on in the region. However, I knew nothing about Islam and the history behind the religion how the Quran is incorporated into this religion. Throughout research, authors have stressed the importance of how people interpret the Quran thus reflecting how they practice the religion. Salman Rushdie, an Iranian author who was forced into hiding by an Iranian fundamentalist leader, wrote “the insistence within Islam that the Quran is the infallible, uncreated word of God renders analytical scholarly discourse all but impossible.” What he means by this is that to Islamic fundamentalists, the words of the Quran are be taken literally and are not meant to be reinterpreted by anyone, and Rushdie sees this as the problem within Islam. Rushdie believes that, “If the Quran were seen as a historical document, then it would be legitimate to reinterpret it to suit the new conditions of successive new ages.” He is merely suggesting that Muslims look to the Quran, which was written in the 7^th century, to guide their beliefs and their laws not to strictly adhere to everything that is written. If contemporary Muslims were able to incorporate this thought into their practices and beliefs, we may be on our way to the beginning of the Islamic Reformation.

            While there are people who are calling for Islamic Reformation, others believe that it has already begun. The infighting amongst the two biggest sects of Islam, the Shiites who represent 15% of the Muslim world and the Sunnis who represent 85% is eerily similar to the violence experienced during the Protestant Reformation in the 16^th and 17^th centuries. The difficult reality to consider is whether or not the fighting will end and the tolerance of each sect will be a result of all of the violence occurring now. If we take a step back from the region of the Middle East and move South to Sub-Saharan Africa, we will also see a reformation of Islam that has already taken place. In Senegal, a reformationist Islamic leader, Cheikh Toure stresses the relationship between God and the individual as opposed to traditional Islamic communal practices. Evidence of this reform of Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa can be seen through the religious practices that have evolved in Northern Nigeria towards a more modern and individualistic practice. One example is how they changed their view on how they treat women, and even opened mosques for women to use, which was a huge innovation for the religion at the time. It may be hard to compare the regions of Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East because of the larger presence of Islam in the Middle East, the studies conducted by Loimeier in Africa offer hope that reformation is possible.

            An example of how Islam may be going through a reformation is through a study done by Alexis Kort, who focused on how the Internet is changing Islam and how it is the basis of change within the religion. With a religion that is was created so long ago and has had trouble moving forward with the times, Kort offers some evidence of how technology like the emergence of the Internet is impacting the Islamic religion as a whole. She takes an interesting approach and compares the impact of the “printing revolution” on the Protestant Reformation, to the “technology revolution’s” impact on Islam. With that said she explains how websites on the Internet are created so that anyone can surf the web and look at them. So when people create websites about Islam they write about the religion in the simplest of terms so that believers and non-believers are able to understand what is being said. Also, the accessibility of the Internet allows for young Muslims to type in a few keywords and discover the works of many different Islamic thinkers and their different interpretations of the religion. The fact that there are different interpretations of the Quran already on the Internet is evidence of an Islamic Reformation already happening.

The question of whether or not Islam is already going through a reformation is up for debate. While some believe that it is already happening, there are those who believe that Islam is going in the opposite direction. “Large segments of the Muslim world are experiencing

a radical return to ancient doctrine, not a reformation” This can be seen in societies like ISIS and Syria where stricter forms of Sharia Law are being enforced rather than eradicated. While this harsher form of Sharia Law is being imposed on people, modern theology is being blocked at the same time to prevent any idea of reform ever happening. Thus presenting the question of whether or not Muslims want a reformation to take place.

            Although the idea of Islamic Reformation happening might offer peace in the war torn region of the Middle East, there are scholars and other Muslims that believe that Islam will never go through a reformation and it doesn’t necessarily need to. Dr. David Kelley of Princeton offers a different insight to what Islam needs to go through, but is not a reformation. Kelley compares the Protestant Reformation in a different way that we have seen before. He believes that the fundamentalist Islamists of today are similar to the Protestants of the 16^th century reformation. He makes this comparison with the understanding of fundamentalist Muslims wanting more rigid interpretations of the Quran, just like the Protestants wanted more literal interpretations of the Bible. Therefore, Kelley comes to the conclusion that Islam needs not a reformation, but an Enlightenment. Those that believe that no reformation is needed believe that we need to look at the Protestant Reformation as a lesson learned, not as an example to follow. “The history of how secularism developed in Protestant and Catholic countries serves as a reminder that politics and circumstance shape religion, and its application to society, far more than abstract theology does. And these forces can change a faith dramatically even while scripture remains the same.” Here Danforth is suggesting that the religion of Islam does not need to change, it’s the politics involved that needs to change. This leads him to conclude that the best way to approach what is going on in the Middle East is to let them figure it out amongst themselves without any outside intervention. I spoke to a close friend, Yasmeen, who is Muslim and practices the religion daily and I presented her with the same question of whether or not Islam needs a reformation. I thought it would be interesting to get a personal perspective about the question at hand, and her opinion proved to be very intriguing. She believes that Islam will never undergo a reformation to the same scale as the Protestant Reformation from the 16^th and 17^th centuries. It is her belief that the interpretation of Islam and the Quran is the same all around the world. Her example was that if you were to ask someone a question about the Quran in the United States, and then you went to Iraq and asked him or her that same question you would get the same answer. So after some debate about why she thinks a reformation is not possible, I asked her what she thinks the solution to all of the conflict in the Middle East would be if it weren’t a reformation. She firmly believes that it is not the religion that is the problem; it is the people that are in control. The political leaders in the Middle East are taking too radical of a stance in regards to the Quran and Sharia Law. So in able to fix the problems in the region, we have to tackle the issue of the leaders, not the religion.

            With that said, there is a real life example that can be used as an example where a small change in Islamic thinking had positive impacts on the country of Turkey. Whether or not it is successful we will have to see in the future, but the nation has undergone a change in their Islamic based government in an attempt to become closer to Europe. Bonner looks toward an Islamic thinker from the early 1900s, Said Nursi, as the first to propose this new Turkey. Nursi was the first Islamist in Turkey to be a “reformist” of Islam by leading a “moral jihad” to purify the religion of Islam. This idea of inputting more morals into how people practice Islam was the forefront of how Turkey was able to be successful in their shift towards a more democratic regime. Then in the 1960s, based on Nursi’s teachings in the early 20^th century, another social movement led by a man named Gulen began. The hopes of Gulen’s movement was to create an Islam of, “science, peace and nonviolence.” Between these two movements over the span of 100 years, these two revolutionary Islamic thinkers opened over 300 school in the nation of Turkey. With this new modern thinking among the citizens the incredible hate that Muslims had for the West in Turkey, the people soon yearned for a bid to join the European Union. In 2001, a new political party called the Justice and Development Party took the lead in creating a more pro-democratic Turkey. Another Islamist thinker that had close ties to the Justice and Development Party is Ali Bulac. Bulac flip-flopped a little bit on his views about Turkey joining the European Union. First, he felt that the Islamic Turkey would not be able to cooperate with the Christian EU. However, after some close studying of the economic benefits that Turkey might reap from a partial membership in the EU he changed his view slightly saying the EU wouldn’t allow full membership anyway, so let’s take what we can and benefit from the deal. These kinds of thinkers from Turkey paved the way for the economic development that Turkey has experienced since the 2000s. Since then less than 8% of the people of Turkey think that Sharia law should rule their country. Takim, a religious scholar in Canada, studied how Sharia law has shifted from being the Law of Islam, to becoming the law against the infidels, or those who do not practice Islam. Therefore, it is promising that a small number of Turkish citizens believe that Sharia Law should not be applied in their country.

            Turkey provides the world with good example of how it is possible for an Islamic based country to work with democratic regimes economically. While Turkey wasn’t 100% democratic, they instilled some factors of democracy into their regime, which enabled them to build their economy, which in turn helped the citizens of the country as well. I believe that if some countries in the Middle East were able to create some sort of stability in their countries, a similar regime in their countries would be possible. While a change in such an old religion is hard and nearly impossible, I truly believe that the people of Islam in the Middle East could live in peace. If they undergo some of the similar belief modifications that Turkey went through in their country, it would be better for the economies of those countries, and in turn it would benefit the citizens who live there. With the evidence presented it is possible that a reformation is happening within the Islamic religion. The Protestant Reformation looked eerily similar to what is happening in the Middle East: the persecution, fighting and changes. All of that is happening in the region and hopefully, if history really repeats itself, we will see peace unfold in the region in the future.