re: #865 Obdicut

Do you just not know what the Enlightenment was, or something?

Otherwise I have no fucking clue how your response makes any sense.

I think what he meant about “how do you propose changing the literal word of Allah”, and earlier about having “a price on your head overnight” is a confusion about what might be acceptable reformation to a Muslim. Changing even one letter of the Qur’an would be completely unacceptable to a Muslim. I think the same can probably be said for the Jews/Torah and the Christians/Bible—i.e. you may translate it, you may reinterpret how what it says applies to modern day life, but you may not rewrite it or change any of the religion’s basic tenets simply to make it more convenient. Anyone reading should feel free to correct me if I’m wrong on that.

As you obviously know since your family has a history in Spain (so does mine, BTW), Muslim Spain was considered very enlightened for its place & time. God willing, one day it will regain a positive status.

Anyway, I’m getting off track. What Naso was refusing to acknowledge was that there are already mechanisms within Islam that allow for change & adaptation, and some of that good old hopey-changey stuff is happening, albeit quietly & slowly on a grassroots level. It’s happening here in America and elsewhere, or at least that what Muslims I’ve met from other countries tell me.

The thing is, there’s also a poison out there. Add to that the dictatorships in the ME, socio-economic problems, and cultural issues that need to be addressed, and you have painfully slow change. Not only that, but the change has to move across a geographic area much larger & more (culturally) varied that that of Europe during the Reformation. Change didn’t happen overnight for Europe—it took hundreds of years—and it’s not going to happen overnight in the ME either.

I believe that Islam has its best chance to grow and adapt here in the U.S. Not with the aim of taking over and instituting sharia [insert *eyeroll*], but with the aim of taking our religion back, so to speak. Why here? Because of the freedoms we have (both religious & otherwise), because many American Muslims are converts who don’t have the cultural baggage that gets mixed in with Islam as it exists in the ME and beyond, because America is the most amazing melting pot ever, which makes it easy for anyone who can get here to (eventually) be accepted as an American. IOW, is a place where Islam & Muslims can be free to grow & thrive just like everyone else. And I think it will.

Wow, I didn’t intend to write all that. Okay, morning will come way too soon, so I’d better go. Night, lizards.

~~~~GONE~~~~