Last night at Phoenix College, I attended a lecture by
Reza Aslan titled "The Future of Islam: Toward the Islamic Reformation."
Naturally, I went in skeptical, having heard of a call for an Islamic Reformation, but talk of an Islamic Reformation and a reformation in practice are worlds apart.
However, I came away with a truly different perspective on the Islamic Reformation, which, for its differences does resemble in certain respects the Christian Reformation of the 16th century.
I've transcribed the entire speech to the best of my ability as follows. You be the judge...
"I want to focus on larger issues facing the Middle East and give a different perspective. Five years post 9/11 it's important for us to step back and think not just about the attack and its causes but we still have a tough time defining who the enemy is.
We still do not have a single term to define the enemy. The term "war on terror" is problematic. Islamo Fascism is a problematic term because Fascism is an ultra nationalist ideology where the nation state is at an almost religious level. To al Qaeda the nation state is antithetical to everything they believe.
This master narrative is being created that we're at war with a unified movement with the head as Osama bin Laden, a Hitlerian character.
There are serious problems with this master narrative.
First, no such thing exists. If you can't figure out who the enemy is, you can't win the war.
Second, the goals are vastly different. Hamas, for example has no global ideals. It's not just a misunderstanding of the enemy but of the conflict itself. It's not a clash of civilizations but within Islam itself. It's a conflict for the future of the faith.
We need to understand the rise of jihadism.
What is the Islamic Reformation? It was and is today an argument over who has the authority to define faith. However, Islam has never had a centralized faith but is scattered among competing clerics and schools of law over the meaning of Islam. Religious authority is not ordained by God. The authority comes from his education.
The reason these clerical institutions have had this monopoly is they have controlled the educational institutions. Europe has instituted individualism, education and now with globalization these clerical institution's grip has loosened and their authority marginalized.
There are profound developments pushing the Islamic Revolution forward:
First, the translation of Koran into local languages
Second, rapid influx of Muslim immigrants into the West
Third, the Internet. For example, www.fatwa.com
Islam is not based on creed, but practice. Orthopraxis versus orthodoxy. What you do makes you Islamic. Clerics define what is the correct practice.
Osama bin Laden is a product of the Islamic Reformation, not the cause. Osama Bin Laden wants to return Islam to an idealized, unadulterated and imaginary past. Christians and Jews are a secondary target. The primary target is Muslims who do not adhere to their version of Islam.
What Osama bin Laden has most in common with Christian reformers is he has set himself up in direct contradiction to his authorities. He continues to give fatwas, which only come from a learned cleric, yet over and over again, he issues fatwas.
Those messages are not to the Muslim world but to the United States. It's also meant to be a stick in the eye of institutions. It'd be like an altar boy issuing papal bulls. He's challenging institutions as the sole interpreter of Islam. In Osama bin Laden's world, anyone can issue a fatwa or declare jihad. Strip away the authority of Islam, then take it upon yourself. This is appealing to downtrodden youth saying 'you don't have to listen to your clerical authorities anymore.' Osama bin Laden is saying Muslims have been worshiping the clerics instead of Allah.
However, Osama bin Laden is not the primary voice of the Islamic Reformation. The Reformation phenomenon is uncontrollable. It allows for a host of competing ideologies. Who's right and who's wrong often turns out to who shouts the loudest.
We need to make sure the voices of moderation can overtake the voices of extremism. If we are fighting Islamic violence and bigotry we need to promote Islamic peace, love and pluralism. It exists in such a deafening roar. That we don't hear it is not just media but political institutions. We have a political interest in fostering this.
The Islamic Reformation is already here, we have the honor of living through it."
UPDATE: I asked Reza afterwards if he was concerned about Iran acquiring nukes and what smart U.S. foreign policy towards Iran should be.
First, he said Iran is going to acquire nuclear technology regardless of how much the U.S. does not want Iran to do so. Whether it's to acquire nukes or to progress in nuclear technology is yet to be seen. However, he said Iran has not broken any international laws or treaties, therefore, they cannot be penalized for their behavior up to this point. His solution is to provide the nuclear technology to Iran, to build it for them, for a technology function and not a weapons function. This would allow us to work with the decision makers in Iran.
He also said a recent IAEA report demonstrated the Iranians are progressing in their nuclear technology at an extremely slow rate.
Second, he said the U.S. should do everything it can to sideline and marginalize Ahmadinejad.