Time for Muslim reformation
As the head of a progressive Muslim organisation in Britain that is dedicated to an enlightened, egalitarian and erudite Islam, I was victimised, like other forward-looking Muslims, by a campaign of classic McCarthyism. Just as Senator Joseph McCarthy ruined the lives of countless Americans during the 1950s when he and his committee smeared innocent people as communists, the Muslim hierarchy in Britain have used witchhunts to maintain their unquestioned theological power. Any Muslim freethinker is automatically branded as heretical or un-Islamic and excommunicated from the community – and debate is shut down.
I hope that my public vindication in the courts will embolden more progressives, dissenters and particularly thinking women to put their heads above the parapet and challenge the fundamentalist mullahs. Only then can we loosen the deadly grip of the self-appointed religious fraternity on what it is to be a Muslim in Britain.
Opening paragraphs of an excellent article by a leading British Muslim,in THe Times, who argues for the equivalent of the Reformation and the Enlightenment for Islam.
It would be great if leading Muslims in NZ spoke out in the same way. His comparison to McCarthyism is most apposite. McCarthy symbolises intolerance of any alternative view to one received view and the persecution of those who hold other views.
Dr Hargey makes a scathing attack on the way Islam is dominated by radicals who have distorted the faith.
This extract is typical:-
The rampant oppression of women in Muslim society does not stem from the Koran but is chiefly the product of misogynistic hadith. For example, a famous “authentic” hadith declares that there will be a preponderance of women in Hell. But the facts here on earth suggest otherwise – male criminality far exceeds that of females.
These anti-Koranic perspectives will continue to predominate in the British Muslim community as it becomes more directly tied to ultra-conservative and extremist sects – such as the Wahhabi, Deobandi, Jamati Islami and the Tabligh Jamaat. These ideological radicals propagate a highly toxic caricature of Islam. They regard creed and culture as indistinguishable, refusing to grasp that Islam is a global religion, not a faith that is linked to one particular people or place.
Although Muslims have their own specific territorial cultural traditions, there is no such thing as an Islamic culture. Therefore the modern trend among British Muslims blindly to emulate Arab ethnic dress or grow beards or for women to wear the Wahhabi-sanctioned niqab or face masks has nothing to do with the Koran but everything to do with the primitive tribal mores and sexist practices of Arabia.
Dr Hargey firmly makes the point that this radicalism is not based on the Koran, but on dubious interpretations of other material and the mediaeval development of Sharia.
Well worth reading the entire piece. He is especially good on the baleful influence of Saudi Arabia.
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Julaybib Ayoub
Ok, but what are your views on the issue Hargey commented on
Adam
Few Muslims take this guy seriously, or his hysterical claims. Hargey picked on a minor conservative weekly, made a lot of noise about his grand victory, and was kindly given a platform wholy out of kilter with either the intellectual validity of his ideas or the status of MECO, his organisation, which boasts the support of precisely 0.0001% of the British Muslim population. Some of the statements in Hargey’s comment are quite simply daft. His emnity is directed at conservative Islam, not extremism, whose social values are barely distinguishable from their Catholic of Jewish bretheren. Had he made similar statements about Hasadic Jews, the Times would never have printed it.
After reading A Thousand Splendid Suns, it became my opinion that Nato should never leave Afghanistan. This book is fiction but it is based on stories the author supposedly heard from Afghan women when he returned after the Taliban regime fell. I like to think I am a liberal who can generally accept diverse cultures without prejudice, however, I find it more and more difficult not to detest the islamic faith. I am not a religious person myself, an atheist in fact, but I can still see the value of certain religions in spreading love, empathy and a sense of purpose to many people.
Recently, when hearing of the possible implementation of the sharia family law in Afghanistan, I was shocked and disgusted. I cannot see an iota of value in the islamic faith. For me the muslim world and its islamic faith is just a religion of oppression of women, starting from the mild to the extreme, from Turkey to Egypt to Saudi Arabia to Iran & Afghanistan.
What was Al-qaeda´s polital point under 9/11? They are supposedly against western/US way of life. What exactly about this way of life do they abhor? Is it the capitalist system – NO – since the muslim world Saudi Arabia/Dubai greatly welcome capitalism and the acquisition of wealth. Is it the secular way of life? NO – since the US has one of the most regular church going populations in the world. What is it exactly? It is the freedom of women to live their lives they way they wish!! In my opinion, the islamic faith boils down to just that – keeping the lid on women´s freedom and independence.
I challenge a muslim to show me / explain to me where their religion is not oppressive to women. I ask why it was that when the terrible acts of 9/11 occurred, that there were not millions of muslims in the streets demonstrating their distance and abhorrence to the views of these extremists. Is it because silently many muslims support these views?
I will support any muslim who stands up against such views and can demonstrate to me, that the islamic faith is a vehicle of good, a faith which respects human rights. Why aren´t there more like Dr.Hargey?
Excellent article.