Re: How to facilitate reformation in Islam?
I think Islam has underwent a form of Reformation, quite similar to that seen in Christianity from the 16th Century. The problem is that a Reformation will not always bring the sort of changes that secular folk in the west look for. Also, I think that Islam will be like Christianity in that it will have 3 stages of the Reformation process, or perhaps you could say 3 seperate Reformations, which can trace their origins to a more gradual process of reform.
Pre-Reformation changes: Anthony of Egypt (late 3rd Century AD) / Sufism (late 7th Century AD)
As soon as Islam and Chrisianity had become state religions, they came to represent organised religion in its vilest form. The spiritual significance was minimal, religion was about state control and an excuse to persecute threats to the established order. While the average person was still too worried about tending to his crops and livestock, both Christian and Muslim theologians became aware that the abuse of religion by temporal rulers was very much against the message of both the Bible/Apocrypha and the Koran/Hadiths. As a result of this, there was a movement led by intellectuals to promote a more peaceful form of faith without trampling on the toes of the Arab/Roman and then Frankish rulers, and so the idea of a priesthood seperated from society came into being. In Christianity, the idea of institutionalised monasticism first appeared in Egypt in the 3rd Century AD, with Anthony of Egypt being the best known example - the practice rapidly spread and was soon seen as far away as Ireland. Some of these priests chose to live in an hermitage, others went to sit on top of a pillar for the rest of their lifes. In Islam, there was a very similar process as theologians became concerned at the usage of Islam to promote purely Arab Imperialism, as the religion was spread by conquest from Andalus to Sindh barely 100 years after it emerged. From this discontent, Sufism was born, with monastic orders emerging in a very similar process to their Christian counterparts. Both Christian monasticism and Sufism showed the peaceful, but isolted, as aspects of their respective faiths, and later both became breeding grounds for mysticism, which Sufism is still recognised as representing today. While monasticism showed a more accurate face of Christianity/Islam, it also limited the proper practising of the faiths to a very select priesthood, and religion was still brutally abused at the state level.
1st Reformation: Martin Luther (1517) / Kharijites (late 7th Century AD), and later Sunni reformist sects
This tends to be a result of the disillusionment with the corruption that organised religion often brings. The clamour for reform still tends to come from factions of religious leaders, as the common people are still largely illeterate and usually lack any acess to their holy books. This process in Islam was hastened to an extent by the civil war that resulted in the Sunni/Shia split, something which never happened in Christianity. Elements of populist thought start to creep in, albeit subtly. For example, the Kharjities were distinct from the Sunni/Shia mainstream, in that they claimed that any pious Muslim could become a religious leader, not just the desendents of Muhammad. Also, they empahsised the 'equality of the faithful', and were opposed to the Umayyad aristocracy. Similarly, while Luther believed in dedicated clearly and theologians, he also helped further the notion of the 'priesthoold of all believers', and rejected the notion of a seperate priesthood. This first reformation also saw a focus on the sole authority of the respective holy books. For Luther, this was the notion of 'Sola Sciptura', that the Bible alone should be the source of Christian doctrine, and not the works of monks and theologians. Similarly, the Kharijities took a borderline legalist approach to the Koran, and were seen as extremists due to their strict adherence to the word of the Koran alone. Perhaps, the significant difference between Christianity/Islam here is that Luther gained more ground than the Kharijites, who were limited to southern Arabia and parts of eastern Africa, while Luther of course split Christian Europe in two. However, the process in Islam was later furthered by reformist sects, notably in the Sahara, where a lack of religious enforcement has allowed pagan practices to be joined with Islamic beliefs, leading to many heretical Berber tribes such as the Berghwata forming. However, under the Almoravid Dynasty from the 1040's, a new form of Sunni Islam began to emerge, which would become dominant in western Islam. These Berbers were quite puritanical, with the belief that all pious Muslims are equal, just like the ideas of Luther and the Kharijites. However, it wasnt' until changes in technology, most notably the invention of the printing press, the populist religous ideas could emerge on a large scale, leading to the second reformation. In effect, Sunni Islam became the "Protestantism" of Islam, with Shia Islam remaining unreformed, and could be said to be the "Catholicism" of Islam. Sunni's now largely reject oppose the veneration of saints, the use of idolatrous images, the notion of a select priesthood etc; all in opposition to their Shia counterparts - the parallels with Christianity are pretty clear.
2nd Reformation: John Calvin (1536) / Salafism or Wahhibism (late 18th Century)
The 2nd Reformation is when religion taken on a truly populist approach, with church hierarchy being flung out the window, replaced with a firm belief in the sole authority of the holy books, and everyone's right to practise their teachings. This second reformation also has one common feature in Christianity and Islam - puritanism. While this reformation is populist in its nature, in both cases it was kick-started by theologians. John Calvin (or arguably Martin Bucer before him) formulted the doctrines of predestination and total depravity - not only placing sole doctrinal authority in the Bible, put even placing the credit for all good upon God, and all evil upon mankind. Such doctrines appeared took on a little regional variation wherever they went, appearing as Puritanism in England and Presbyterianism in Scotland. Interestingly, when defending Cromwell I've been told that he was the head of a "Protestant Taliban", in a way I see where they are coming from. Similarly, such puritanical views appeared in Islam as Salafism as a result of the work Islamic theologians in the 18th century, who felt Islam needed a revival similar to that seen in Europe. Of course, this populist revolution did not happen in Islam until a later date due to technological backwardness - it had been fuelled by the printing press in Europe. This Salafism emerged in Saudi Arabia as the Wahhibism we know of today.
3rd Reformation: been going on since secularism became popular in Christianity / still very early days for Islam
This is the Reformation where integration means people become increasingly tolerant of others beliefs - its hard to believe so many people you know and who appear to be decent folk are going to Hell. So, having gained the ability to read the holy books through the previous reformations, and with the lack of a church hierarchy to enforce doctrine since the second reformation, people start to make unorthodox interpretations of their holy books. The fundamentalism of the previous reformation rapidly dies out, and is replaced with symbolism and the spiritual significance of the stories of the Bible/Koran. Suddenly, people start to get along, and everyone tolerates, and even accepts the validitiy of, other faiths.
Like the reformations seen in Christianity, those in Islam are not global in their effect. Nowadays, soutern Europea remains Catholic, Germany remains Protestant, and some pockets hold onto the Calvinist tradition. Similarly in Islam, Iran remains Shia, most of the Islamic world is Sunni, with areas such as Saudi Arabia following the more puritanical Salafist traditions. People speak of a reformation in Islam as if it will make it more compatible with western secular society, but really it will not, not until the third Reformation. After all, the Protestant Reformation gave you the zealots like myself!
I do believe Islam has a very rich tradition, more than Christianity does. I also believe that it has just as much potential as Christianity to be a peaceful relgion, and one day it will become just that. Muslims aren't all crazed jihadist fundamentalists, they are good faithful people just like Christians. Of course, I also believe their religion to be plain wrong and it is because of this capacity to adapt that it will be a major component of the one world religion of the end times (well you didn't think my englightened tone would last forever did you).
Originally Posted by PowerWizard
, that is brilliant Horetore! Someone is doing something completely peaceful, and it is perfectly ok that people will kill them for it, because they should do it! Suppose I say that learning is evil, and I will kill all teachers, is that reasonable? If they want to live, they can just stop teaching after all. Seriously, think about what you are saying there. 
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