Yesterday we had a post about North African anthropologist Malek Chebel, and his 27 Propositions for Reforming Islam. Any sign of change and evolution in Islam is always welcome, but Robert Spencer raises some vital issues that never seem to be addressed by the would-be reformers: Hope for reforming Islam?

Will a return to the original Islam really result in an intellectual flowering and enable the idea of violent jihad to be discarded? The Qur’an considers death “not a noble thing”? Yet it instructs Muslims to “kill the unbelievers wherever you find them” (9:5), promises Paradise to those who “kill and are killed” for Allah (9:111), and taunts the Jews that if they are really chosen of Allah, they will love death: “Say (O Muhammad): O ye who are Jews! If ye claim that ye are favoured of Allah apart from (all) mankind, then long for death if ye are truthful” (62:6).

And Muhammad, of course, was a warrior. He fought in battles, he ordered the assassinations of his enemies, and he blessed those who carried out his wishes by killing those enemies. This is all readily established from Islamic sources — and you can’t get any more “original” in Islam than the example of Muhammad himself.

I have discussed here before the fact that I am considering writing a biography of Muhammad. I set it aside for awhile, but now I have a proposal in with a publisher; they’re considering it. More and more I think such a book is necessary, since we hear from good people like Chebel that a return to original Islam will solve the problems of the Islamic world, and yet we also hear from the jihadists that it is they who are following the mandates of true, original Islam. Accordingly this is a question that needs to be resolved, and has large implications for public policy.