Attempts To Reform Muslim Thought Have Always Faced Fierce Resistance From Fundamentalists: Iraqi Thinker Mahdi Qassem Cites Examples Of Naguib Mahfouz, Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, Husayn Muruwa, Faragh Foda, All Of Whom Suffered At The Hands Of Traditional Islam
Many Reformists
And Thinkers Were Assassinated By Extremists.
Main
Points:
1. Extremist interpretation of Quranic verses
turn young Muslims into terrorists.
2. Secularists and liberal thinkers are branded
apostates and enemies of Islam.
3.Muslims have a very rigid notion of religion
that prevents them from reform.
----
New
Age Islam Staff Writer
26 May 2021
The
stagnation in Muslim thought across the Muslim world has always been a cause of
concern for Muslim intellectuals, liberal Islamic scholars and reformers. But
their attempts have always faced fierce resistance from the fundamentalists who
are so much obsessed with the puritanical Islam that they think that any reform
in the Muslim thought will corrupt the faith. Therefore, these reformers were
either assassinated or declared apostates and had to go into self-exile.
Moreover, every such attempt is believed to be a conspiracy of the West and the
reformers are considered agents of the enemies of Islam. The result is that all
such attempts to bring reform among Muslims have failed in the past and will
fail in future as well.
These were
the observations of a renowned Iraqi writer Mahdi Qassem which he made in his
article published in Sawt-al-Iraq on March 10, 2021.
His
observations reflect the frustration of a large number of Muslim intellectuals
and liberal Islamic scholars, especially of the Arab world. The stagnation in
the religious thought has reached such a degree that any attempt at reform is
seen with suspicion.
This
stagnation in Islamic thought of the modern age has caused immense and
irreparable damage to Muslims. The two major problems facing Muslims today
---Sectarianism and Terrorism --- are the result of this intellectual
stagnation and the refusal to adapt to needs and requirements of the modern
age.
Mahdi
Qassem cites the examples of some prominent Muslim academicians, scholars and
thinkers who were declared apostates or assassinated or there were attempts at
their life. He cites the example of Husayn Muruwa (1910-1987) who was assassinated
at his home in Beirut. Muruwa was a Lebanese philosopher and a senior member of
Lebanese Communist Party. He wrote a number of books. His most outstanding work
was Materialist Tendencies in Arabic Islamic Philosophy. In this book he
interpreted traditional Arabic texts from the Marxist point of view.
Another
writer and thinker who was assassinated because of his reformist thought was
Faragh Foda (1946-1992). He was a prominent writer and human rights activist of
Egypt. Foda became an eyesore for the radical Islamists of Egypt for his
critical writings on Muslim religious thought. The titles of his books give a
hint of his critical attitude. Some of his books are Pleasure Marriage,
Sectarianism to Where?, Dialogue about Shariah etc. Obviously he was critical
of Sectarianism in Islam, the general concept of Sharia and corrupt practices
in the name of temporary marriages. Al Azhar declared him and other secularist
writers enemies of Islam. Foda advocated separation of religion from state. The
Gama'a Islamiyya accused him of blasphemy and declared him an apostate. The
members of Gama'a Islamiyya assassinated him on June 8, 1992.
However,
Faragh Foda's daughter Samar refuted the allegation that her father was an
apostate . She said that he was a thinker and defended moderate Islam. She
claimed that not a single text in his father's writings was against Islam.
Another
prominent writer of Egypt who became the target of the extremists was the Nobel
Laureate Naguib Mahfouz. He was also critical of cultural censorship and
advocated freedom of expression. He denounced what he called cultural terrorism.
The Islamists regarded Naguib Mahfouz's novels as blasphemous and Al Azhar had
banned his novel "Children of Gabalawi". In 1992, he along with
hundreds of Egyptian intellectuals had signed a letter denouncing cultural
terrorism. In October 1994, an extremist attacked him with a knife and severely
injured his neck. But he survived the attack.
Apart from
these thinkers and liberal scholars there are dozens of other philosophers and
thinkers who were victimised for their unconventional views on Islam and the
Quran.
One such
thinker was Egyptian scholar Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd who was also a victim of
intolerant religious attitude. He was the Professor of Islamic and Arabic Studies
in Cairo University. He was an advocate of freedom of thought and scientific
research and a critic of contemporary Islamic discourse. He had his own views
on the Quran. He accepted Quran as a divine book but was of the view that the
Quran was a cultural product which had to be read and interpreted in context of
the language and culture of the seventh century Arabs and could be interpreted
in many ways.
For his
views, a court of Egypt declared him apostate and ordered his separation from
his wife. He went into self-exile in Europe but later returned to Egypt and
died a natural death.
Mahdi
Qassem also blames the growth of terrorism and extremism among the third
generation of Muslims born and brought up in Europe on the extremist
interpretation of certain verses of the Quran. He wonders how the young Muslims
who were born in liberal European society and were educated in the colleges and
universities of Europe turned terrorists and joined Al Qaida and ISIS. He
blames this on the refusal of Muslims to bring any kind of reform. He writes:
"Many third generation descendants of
Muslim (immigrants) were born in western welfare states and studied in their
best schools and universities. Moreover, they grew up in real democracies and
open societies that promote the values of tolerance and of giving every
individual a chance to develop his personal skills and abilities and that
punish every kind of racism and hate-mongering. But it is young men and women
of third generation of all people who joined terrorist organisations like Al
Qaida and ISIS and others... and perpetrated horrible and barbaric crimes of
murder, massacre and burning people alive."
He also
observes that any reform in Muslim thought and behaviour is not possible
because Muslims have developed a very rigid concept of religion. He writes:
"I believe that any future attempt ( at
reform) will fail as well, for Islam is the only religion in the world that
resists reform and will never be reformed neither by force nor through a
flexible (approach). Not only because it requires changing or omitting many
Quranic verses that call for violent jihad and for forceful coercion, but also
because the Salafis and their sheikhs believe that any enlightened reform of
this kind will empty Islam of its content and essence, and lead to its
distortion and annulment, turning it into what they see as a fake religion like
Christianity and Judaism."(English translation by MEMRI)
The irony
is that many old and new Islamic scholars believe in the theory of abrogation
that calls for abrogation of certain verses of the Quran but only those verses
that advocate peace and harmony with non-Muslims. They call the war verses that
ask believers to keep fighting all non-Muslims in all times and in all
circumstances universally applicable.
Therefore,
sectarianism and terrorism cannot be fought and eliminated as long as Quranic
verses are not interpreted in the light of modern social and political
requirements.