So You Are a Reformist Muslim? Moderate Muslim? Liberal? Conservative?...

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So You Are a Reformist Muslim? Moderate Muslim? Liberal? Conservative?...
Saleema
12/01/01 at 03:47:00
[slm]

So are you a moderate Muslim? Conservative Muslim? Liberal Muslim? Orthodox Muslim? (Oh and which was the Prophet (S) by the way?) Or are you are Reformist Muslim? Read some of the following excerpts from the article on beliefnet, is this the type of situation you imagine for your children? For your self in a decade or so down the line? I don't think I want my chidren to adopt a faith called "American Islam," I think they would have a better chance at jannah and this world with just Islam.
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If we are in the beginnings of an Islamic "reformation" in the West, it wouldn't be the first time American immigrants have taken the religion of their ancestors and put a distinctly American stamp on it. When Catholics came to the United States in 150 years ago, they had the freedom to start their own organizations and build their own churches. Eventually, they began questioning the Vatican's hierarchical power and conservative moral stance--a struggle that continues to this day.

When Jews immigrated to America, they, too, experimented with theology and social organization. They built Jewish Community Centers and all manner of synagogues for different kinds of Jews. American Jews invented Bat Mitzvah ceremonies for girls and Reconstructionist theology.

In both cases, they sought to join the American religious mainstream. First, Catholics united with Protestants in ecumenical groups. By the 1950s, Jews had joined the interfaith scene to create what we now think of as the "Judeo-Christian" ethic.

Reform-minded Muslims are pushing for the same story line.


That is because, he says, right now they have only two models for understanding their place in the world. The first is that of the oppressed--as Muslims were in their early days in Mecca. The second is that of rulers--the way Muslims eventually lived in Medina.

Esack says, however, that embedded in the Qur'an is a story about a group of Muslims who lived in Abyssinia, a Christian kingdom. There they lived peacefully--neither trying to convert Christians, nor being proselytized by Christians.

"That’s the way for Muslims to go," says Esack.

Of course, not everyone in a huge faith like Islam thinks alike--even other relatively moderate American Muslims. Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, one of the most high-profile of the American Islamic organization, is a case in point. Hooper says Islam doesn't need a "reform" movement--because it is "the original reform movement." Further, he says, he is suspicious of any movement that purports to get hold of "modernity."

"Islam establishes basic principles, and the society is built around those basic principles," he says. "What's modern today is outmoded tomorrow. Are we to change our faith each day to conform to society? And what are the limits?

"Often we hear from these quarters that we need to reform, but they're never able to establish the limit. Is wearing a bikini at the beach OK, as long as you have modesty in your heart?"

Still, many liberal and moderate Muslims are


But the shape of an alternative movement is not yet clear, either. Among the moderate voices is that of Ingrid Mattson. She is the first woman to hold a position on the board of ISNA, the oldest and largest of the official--and generally quite conservative--Muslim organizations in the United States. She believes Muslim countries shouldn't enforce Muslim religious law on their citizens.

At the same time, Mattson wears a head covering and considers her faith the "primal religion" and the "right way." What's more, she likes the spare, simple Wahhabi theology--and she is not sure Islam even needs a "reformation," since Wahhabism, which emerged in the 18th century, is considered a reform movement.

And the irony is: While much of the Muslim world professes to hate the United States and its liberated, Western ways, it is Muslims here--among the freest, best-educated and richest in the world--who ultimately may hold the real key to empowering Islam.

For the entire article:

http://www.beliefnet.com/frameset.asp?pageLoc=/story/92/story_9273_1.html&boardID=28191
Re: So You Are a Reformist Muslim? Moderate Muslim? Liberal? Conservative?...
Sa7ar
12/01/01 at 04:04:38
Salam 3alikum wr wb...

OH SUB HAN ALLAH.. I am not even going to start myself on this subject..  Because I can go on for hours !!! :) And eventually.. some would get offended.. SUB HAN ALLAH...   Look at the separatism ??I am not trying to throw this word around, but BID'AH comes to my mind !! Can someone Insh'Allah please tell me what a liberal and moderate Muslim is??

Salam 3alikum wr wb

Re: So You Are a Reformist Muslim? Moderate Muslim? Liberal? Conservative?...
Kashif
12/01/01 at 07:01:07
[quote]She believes Muslim countries shouldn't enforce Muslim religious law on their citizens. [/quote]
assalaamu alaikum

I sure hope this is a misquote. Leaders of Muslim countries hold a position in society in which they are charged with certain things: and this includes establishing the prayer five times a day, making sure people fast, etc.

Kashif
Wa Salaam
NS
Re: So You Are a Reformist Muslim? Moderate Muslim? Liberal? Conservative?...
NewJehad
12/01/01 at 07:59:41
i have heard of American Islam. it is a movement to make a new ISlam for america. when where riba and a Muslim women remaining with her non Muslim husband is Hallal. they say they do it by reinterpreting. looks more like fabricating to me.
Re: So You Are a Reformist Muslim? Moderate Muslim? Liberal? Conservative?...
Nazia
12/01/01 at 12:15:59
slm,

This reminded me of a Quran ayah from Surah Yunus

But when Our Clear Signs are rehearsed unto them, those who rest not their hope on their meeting with Us, Say: "Bring us a reading other than this, or change this," Say: "It is not for me, of my own accord, to change it: I follow naught but what is revealed unto me: if I were to disobey my Lord, I should myself fear the penalty of a Great Day (to come)."
10:15



They might want us to have a reformation, establish a papacy or clergy, acknowledge that perhaps some ayahs from the Quran are "outdated" (Astaghfirullah), and unfortunately, we will always have those Muslims who agree.  I think its high time we stopped trying to convince people that "Islam is *just* like Christianity!" and show them that Islam is the truth, and therefore "stands supreme to every other deen."  We don't need to apologize for Islam, or curb it to fit in with Western culture.  All of us know this, yet we see Muslims everyday advertantly or inadvertantly pushing this exact agenda.


Take Care,
Wassalam,
Nazia
Re: So You Are a Reformist Muslim? Moderate Muslim? Liberal? Conservative?...
Rashid
12/01/01 at 22:45:52
[slm]

I just fail to understand why some muslims love America so much??????  Better yet, the american way of life?  I mean what's the big obsession with wanting to fit in, to be accepted???  by people who have shown time and time again that they are not our friends???   All this liberal, modernist, reformist is a way of splitting the ummah, this is why the enemies of Allah are allowed to win...this just sucks :(
Re: So You Are a Reformist Muslim? Moderate Muslim? Liberal? Conservative?...
Anik
12/02/01 at 02:27:10
asalamu alaikum,

I don't mean to pick any bones, because i am probably subject to this criticism myself in ways, and without making my opinion in stone,

The faith of any muslim in America can be Insha'Allah really really high, but not 100% to it's potential... always a little hole,

because every product you buy, when u work, live anywhere, vote, etc., anything, goes to support the killing of muslims.

and just this fact is so unsettling. We say migrating is so hard... is it really? was it as hard as it was in the Hijrah? I don't mean to be critical, I feel bad for living where I am, but I think there is a bit of hypocrisy in the whole thing on many of our parts. asalaamu alaikum. abdullah,.
Re: So You Are a Reformist Muslim? Moderate Muslim? Liberal? Conservative?...
Rashid
12/02/01 at 23:57:42
[slm]

[quote]I feel bad for living where I am[/quote]

You're not the only one brother...it really bothers me, on one hand the freedom we have to practice and preach Islam and on the other hand the slaughtering of muslims done in america's name :(

[wlm]
Re: So You Are a Reformist Muslim? Moderate Muslim? Liberal? Conservative?...
kareema
12/03/01 at 01:31:42
Right with ya, Anik. And to think that we pay our tax dollars for the muderers in Israel and elsewhere!5 billion to Israel alone!
Re: So You Are a Reformist Muslim? Moderate Muslim? Liberal? Conservative?...
abdul_Mutali
12/04/01 at 13:15:05
There is no compulsion in religion. The right direction is henceforth distinct from error. And he who rejecteth false deities and believeth in Allah hath grasped a firm handhold which will never break. Allah is All Hearer,All Knower. (2.256)

The right direction is clear and one and so any other way is false.
We should look for this right path.

May Allah Guide us all to the right path.InshAllah


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