The Problem with Reforming Islam
Dr. Ulrich von Hutten
During recent times Islam has become the focus of various writers and groups. The reason of course is that migrants and asylum seekers coming into Europe not only want to adhere to their religion but in many instances want to replace local law with Shariah law. The latter results primarily form active efforts by Imams and other Islamic community leaders to retain control over Islamic adherents. The counter argument is that Immigrants need to adjust to the culture of the country they wish to live in. No one says you have to forfeit your personal religious belief, but one cannot transpose Mid-Eastern or Southwest-Asian belief systems onto a European society which has developed its own customs over 2 millennia. One either adapts or relocates to a place where the customs are more agreeable to the Islamic migrant.
Against this stands yet another perspective. That Western Society could indeed co-exist with Islam. The hope is that Islam will undergo some kind of reformation or that there are variants of Islam that are less violent. Neither of these is remotely possible, and for the same reasons. To begin with Islam is an all or nothing religion, one cannot pick and choose what one wishes to accept and practice. To even begin a discussion of reform would admit that Mohammed was not infallible, that he was not the last and greatest prophet as his teachings were better suited for a medieval time of conquest and consolidation. There are passages in the Qur’an that demand violent action. To turn one’s back on those strictures would be to admit that the Prophet was wrong or that those strictures no longer apply in the modern world. In either case it states unequivocally that Mohammed was not the Prophet he and his adherents claimed him to be.
In the final analysis Islam cannot undergo a reformation to a more peaceful religion unless its leaders are willing to admit that the Qur’an was created one paragraph at the time to support the ongoing conquest of Arab tribes and to consolidate Mohamed’s control over those tribes. After Mohammed’s death the Qur’an continued to provide a convenient rationalization for the brutal subjugation of peoples whose countries they overran after Islamic leaders embarked on a treacherous path of conquest and colonization. Only in Cordoba did the breakaway Caliphate moderate its application of the Qur’an. Only there did they allow Jews and Christians to live unmolested after paying a tax. If one believes in the orthodoxy of the Qur’an Cordoba was an apostate state since it did not follow the letter of the Islamic law.
One of the greatest problems with the Qur’an is its lack of consistency. To try and reform Islam would require that inconsistencies be reconciled. Again, this would beg the question of how Mohammed, the last and greatest Prophet would write down such glaring non sequiturs if he were divinely inspired as an all knowing God, who knows the past, present, and future, would have no need to edit previous “inspirations.” An all knowing God would, as he did, in the case of Moses unequivocally state what he considers appropriate behavior to be. The fact that the Qur’an is full of glaring non sequiturs speaks against it
being of divine origin, but speaks more to the fact that it was amended to deal with the failure to bring about converts during Islamic expansion. It speaks to the frustrations and anger experienced by a man who deluded himself into believing that he was indeed God’s messenger and that those he conquered would passionately embrace him and his theology. Succeeding generations continue to be affected by the frustrations, hallucinations, and emotional distress felt by Mohammed as religious leaders continue to pick and choose part and parcel of the Qur’an to maintain their hold on Islamic society. Now with the diaspora of Islamic refugees and immigrants Islam has become a clear and present danger to Western Society.
As I stated at the outset, Islam cannot be reformed. To attempt to do so would be to challenge the very foundation of Islam, to admit that Mohammed was not divinely inspired, but by the demons in his mind instead. To quote Bukhari, Volume 1, Book 1 As told by Aisha (the mother of the faithful believers):
Al-Harith bin Hisham asked God’s Apostle “O God’s Apostle! How is the Divine Inspiration revealed to you? God’s Apostle replied, “Sometimes it is (revealed) like he ringing of a bell, this form of Inspiration is the hardest of all and then this state passes off after I have grasped what is inspired. Sometimes the Angel comes in the form of a man and talks to me and I grasp whatever he says.” ‘Aisha added: Verily I saw the Prophet being inspired Divinely on a very cold day and noticed the Sweat dropping from his forehead (as the Inspiration was over).
As my intellectual brother Johannes Reuchlin recently stated anyone who hears bells in his head is usually diagnosed with Schizophrenia while Hyperhidrosis caused by a malfunction in the nervous system can be associated with mental stress. How do you reform the ramblings of an emotionally disturbed person? You don’t! Your simply point out that these are the musings of an incoherent mind.
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