Jihad Watch writer Christine Douglass-Williams’s new book, The Challenge of Modernizing Islam: Reformers Speak Out and the Obstacles They Face, is out now from Encounter Books. Order your copy here.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali says: “This well-written book should not be ignored. With elegance and determination, Christine Douglass-Williams documents a variety of Muslim reformers, of a wide range of backgrounds and persuasions. These courageous men and women should be as well-known as human rights dissidents Solzhenitsyn, Sakharov, and Havel were during the Cold War. Through a series of probing interviews and careful reflection, Douglass-Williams draws out the nature of reformers’ inner struggles and ideals, contrasting them with the beliefs of Islamists. This book is highly recommended for those wishing to learn more about Muslim reformers, and it is a must-read for US policymakers who wish to understand the challenge of Islamism in America and the world today.”
Edwin Black, author of The Farhud, says this: “Incisive and informed, The Challenge of Modernizing Islam by Christine Douglass-Williams offers us the powerful insight needed to launch a new conversation about Islam. It fills the mind with deep knowledge and urgent necessity.”
I contributed a Foreword to this book:
“This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed my favor upon you and have approved for you Islam as religion.”
So says Allah in the Qur’an (5:3), in words that have vexed Islamic reformers and would-be reformers throughout the history of the religion. Traditional and mainstream Islamic theology holds that Islam is perfect, bestowed from above by the supreme being, and hence not only is reform unnecessary, it is heresy that makes the reformer worthy of death if he departs from anything Islamic authorities believe to be divinely revealed.
On the other hand, the cognitive dissonance created by having to believe that the one and only God mandates death for apostasy (Bukhari 6922), stoning for adultery (Bukhari 6829), and amputation of the hand for theft (Qur’an 5:38), and sanctions the sexual enslavement of infidel women (Qur’an 4:3, 4:24, 23:1-6, 33:50, 70:30), the devaluation of a woman’s testimony (Qur’an 2:282) and inheritance rights (Qur’an 4:11), and above all, warfare against and the subjugation of non-Muslims (Qur’an 9:29), has led, particularly in modern times, to attempts by believing Muslims to reconcile Islamic morality with contemporary perspectives and mores.
These attempts are fraught with peril. As Christine Douglass-Williams notes in this book, “Mahmoud Muhammad Taha, a Sudanese Muslim theologian who argued that the Meccan passages,” which are generally more peaceful, “should take precedence over the Medinan,” which call for warfare against non-Muslims, “instead of the reverse, was executed in 1985 by the Sudanese government for heresy and apostasy.” Some of those profiled in this book know these perils firsthand: “Sheik Subhy Mansour recounted: ‘If these Muslim Brotherhood people had the chance, they would have killed me according to their punishment for apostasy plus they claim I’ll go to hell.’ Tawfik Hamid noted: ‘The reformists were killed throughout history, including those who rejected the Sunnah.’”
Death threats aren’t the only dangers either. Europe and North America are full of Muslim spokesmen who present themselves as moderate, Westernized reformers, but are actually just the opposite. Foremost among these is Tariq Ramadan, the grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hasan al-Banna, who has been widely hailed as the “Muslim Martin Luther” but has likewise been accused by French journalist Caroline Fourest, who has published a book-length study of Ramadan’s sly duplicity, Brother Tariq, of “remaining scrupulously faithful to the strategy mapped out by his grandfather, a strategy of advance stage by stage” toward the imposition of Islamic law in the West.
Douglass-Williams notes this duplicity: “In a an example of the distinction to be made between moderates and crypto-moderates, after the brutal riots following the release of the Danish cartoons insulting to Muhammad in 2006, Tariq Ramadan, the Swiss-born theologian and grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Ramadan explained that the reaction of his co-religionists was a ‘a principle of faith…that God and the prophets never be represented.’” One of her interview subjects, Salim Mansur, observes drily that “non-Muslims went to the wrong Muslim for an understanding of the faith.”
The dominant presence of duplicitous pseudo-reformers such as Ramadan considerably muddies the waters. This confusion couldn’t possibly come at a worse time, when the governments of the West are doing nothing less than staking the very futures of their nations not only upon the existence of Muslim moderates and reformers, but upon their eventual victory within the Islamic community. This gamble has been made despite the fact that there is no general agreement, either inside the Muslim community or outside it, of what “Islamic moderation” actually means, and what “Islamic reform” would really look like.
Against this backdrop, The Challenge of Modernizing Islam is extraordinary, refreshing, and much needed in numerous ways. The interviews that Christine Douglass-Williams conducts with some of the leading moderate Muslim spokesmen in the United States and Canada are unique in their probing honesty. While most interviewers from all points of the political spectrum generally are so happy and honored to be in the presence of a Muslim who repudiates jihad terror that they serve up only softball questions and are content with vague generalities in response, in this book Douglass-Williams asks the questions that need to be asked, and yet are asked only infrequently: How do you explain the various Qur’an verses that call for violence, or are misogynistic or problematic in other ways? How do you propose to convince the vast majority of your coreligionists of the correctness of your position? How is reform possible when the mainstream schools of Islamic jurisprudence mandate death for heresy and apostasy?
The answers vary from thought provoking and searchingly honest to cagey and deflective. And that in itself is illuminating. Not every person interviewed in this book is in agreement with every other, and not every attentive and informed reader will come away from these pages convinced that every person here interviewed is being in every instance entirely forthright. Many believe that the resistance to the global jihad in all its forms has no legitimacy, or cannot be successful, if Muslim reformers are not on board with it. I do not share that view, but the need for Islamic reform is undeniable, and the people here interviewed are among its foremost exponents in the West. We owe them a fair hearing as much as they owe us honest answers to the questions here posed.
In the second half of the book, Douglass-Williams offers a probing analysis of what her interview subjects told her, and provides illuminating ways for readers to navigate through the thickets and avoid hazards that have captured and misled numerous analysts of Islam and its prospects for reform. One of the cardinal services she provides here is the drawing of distinctions in numerous areas where crucial differences and delineations have long been obscured, often deliberately. Her discussions of Islam versus Islamism and Islamic moderation versus Islamic reform are a welcome antidote to the sloppy thinking and cant that dominate the public discourse today. Her examination of problematic Islamic texts is all the more welcome for being even rarer. Her discussions of the controversial and manipulative concept of “Islamophobia” and its relationship to the problems of genuine Islamic reform, and to the role of Israel and how it can help distinguish genuine Islamic reformers from pretenders, are the crown and centerpiece of the book, and examples of the kind of searching analysis that is all too often absent from the public square today, and for that all the more needed.
The Challenge of Modernizing Islam is, therefore, an extremely illuminating book, and not always in the ways that its interview subjects may have intended. That is, as is said these days, not a bug, but a feature. It’s crucial today that genuine reformers be distinguished from insincere deceivers, and naïve idealists from those with genuine plans. Here is a solid beginning in that effort. This book should be read while bearing in mind how the governments of the West are assuming that their newly-accepted Muslim refugees will sooner or later accept the values and mores of the secular West and settle down to become loyal and productive citizens, and how the recent experience of European countries, particularly Sweden, Germany, and France, as well as the United Kingdom, offers abundant reason for concern that this may not be the case.
That same tension between high hopes and harsh realities runs through these interviews, and doubtless through the souls of many of the interviewees. For better or worse, however, any chance for Western countries, as well as non-Muslim countries in the Far East and elsewhere, to enjoy a peaceful future now depends, courtesy of a series of decisions our political leaders have made, upon the victory of Islamic reform. The Challenge of Modernizing Islam uniquely equips readers to make an informed and intelligent evaluation of how peaceful the future of non-Muslim countries is likely to be.
mortimer says
Congratulations for this next, needed step in dismantling the SMOKESCREEN that covers up for normative ISLAMIC SUPREMACISM.
The death threats, the blackmail, the dirty tricks will all be in this new book: “The Challenge of Modernizing Islam”.
There are good reasons why Islam cannot be modernized: about one million mullahs DO NOT WANT Islam to be modernized. They would lose their jobs 1
elee says
Agree entirely.
IQ al Rassooli says
With all due respect to Christine, she should have first pointed out that Allah is Muhammad because it is impossible for ANY God to recite such asinine, contradictory, hate-mongering, warmongering, racist, misogynist, intolerant, incoherent, vile, mendacious and evil commandments and ideas.
I assert without any reservations that no god called Allah or angel called Jibril ever revealed anything to Muhammad because every letter, word, verse/Aya ans chapter Sura in the Quran are the sole product of Muhammad’s imagination; the secretions of his warped mind but cleverly PROJECTED into the unsuspecting mouths of Allah and Jibril to give them the aura of sanctity and divinity.
Having established that Muhammad, Allah and Jibril are all Muhammad, Islam is not a religion but a CULT; the deadly Cult of Muhammad.
All other remedies, explanations and reasoning are IRRELEVANT because Islam cannot ever be MODERATED for as long as the followers of Muhammad believe that Allah is the same as the God of the Bible who instructed them ““This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed my favor upon you and have approved for you Islam as religion.”
Since according to this verse the Quran is PERFECT then any addition or subtraction of even a DOT would render it IMPERFECT
Case Closed
IQ al Rassooli
Kafir & Proud!
WPM says
IQ al Rassooli
I agree 100 percent “Modernizing Islam” is like modernizing Nazism, or modernizing the KKK, all ideologies that thrive on violent supremacism and bigoted hate. Without the hate ,lies, slavery, thief , murder ,mayhem, death threats for leaving Islam it would not exist .In history we had cults that cut human hearts out and ate them. We had cults that cannibalize there enemies, had human sacrifices ect. These cults are not accepted today they were not modernized they were wipe out because they endanger all civilized communities. If you modernized Islam it would not be Islam, and the true Islamics would kill the reformers. Germany and Japan in the 1930s were run by Fascist rulers the rulers of Germany and Japan today are not modernized Fascist. Fascist still exits in small numbers not accepted by the main societies anywhere in the world. There are I am sure in this big world cannibals, and other crazy cult leaders are around in small numbers, only Islam gets a free pass to perform unspeakable horror in the name of religion today.
Joe says
Yes, IQ al Rasooli, hear hear!
There is even more to be said against the modernization false hope.
An important point that the pro-‘modernizers’ miss is that this ‘modernized’ Islam would be subject to DEmodernization at any time.
The ‘modernization’ of Islam could lull non-Muslims into a false sense of security and therefore be actually extremely dangerous for non-Muslims in the long-run.
Creole Gumbo says
Agree with you. It is like modernizing The Manson Family, which BTW has a lot in common with islam.
Barry says
IQ,
You are 100% correct in what you state above; however one thing I would add is the Bible clearly teaches that God has an enemy. satan is real. Since God and thus God’s creation are satan’s enemy, then every human bring that has lived to a certain age of awareness knows this enemy, satan, through/by our thoughts, words, deeds and non-deeds. Because ALL have sinned – ALL have had to some extent, evil thoughts. It’s really irrelevant whether satanic manifestations occurred in the cave of Mecca….fact is, Satan (as is well known)….sits on our shoulder and whispers in our ear…..I personally doubt any satanic manifestations ever occurred in the cave (or anywhere else regarding mohammed); but I’m absolutely convinced – 100% certain the true origins of mohammed’s revelations did in fact come from satan….whispering in mohammeds ear as it were…..because ALL evil – ALL evil originates from satan. stan is the father of lies, the prince of death.
David says
I don’t see any chance of trying to make shit look pretty. I personally don’t have any use for governments, religion, faiths, etc. It appears to me that they all cause death and mayhem.
Donald R Laster Jr says
You can not “modernize” Islam. It is theocracy and for a person to be Islamic the person is obligated to follow its civil laws. Remember, Islam is a theocracy and has a specific set of civil laws as part of its State or government.
Now, there is nothing to stop people from worshiping the god (allah means “the god”) of Islam which is Hubal the Arab moon god chief god of the Arab pantheon of gods.
Carl Goldberg says
Ah, yes, the tension between high hopes and harsh reality! Indeed, because of the harsh reality of the logic of Islam, the high hopes for reform are nothing more than empty wishful thinking. The fundamental premise of Islam is that the Koran is Allah’s literal word — perfect, complete, unchangeable and valid for all of eternity. Everything about Islam is based on that premise, and, if that premise is ever abandoned, then the whole theological and ideological edifice of Islam collapses like a house of cards. You rightly cite the Koran 5:3: “This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed my favor upon you and have approved for you Islam as religion.” There are many other passages from the Koran and the Sunnah which prevent, not only rejection, but also any thought of rejection of any portion of the sacred texts. Even the notion of historical contextualization collides with the logic of Islam’s premise, namely, that Allah’s words are prescriptive and valid for all of eternity. The very notion that the Koran is perfect (because it is Allah’s literal word) means that it is logically absurd even to consider reforming it. The so-called reformers have zero influence on the Islamic religious establishment and on religious Moslems. Therefore, they are an irrelevant distraction. Because the notion of reforming Islam is nothing more than wishful thinking, we must not allow the so-called reformers to divert our attention from formulating our proper defense to the harsh reality of Islam. The preservation of our civilization depends on defeating Islam, not reforming it.
Pablo says
Hi Carl, when last did anyone from the Jewish faith stone a gay person or an adulterer?
Carl Goldberg says
My memory does not go back that far.
Pablo says
Of Course it doesn’t. The reason is because the Jewish faith reformed. I guess to allow others (Muslims) in the west the same opportunity is asking much of you.
gravenimage says
Pablo, Muhammed specifically *revived* stoning, which Jews had abandoned by his time.
Moreover, the violent verses of the Qur’an abrogate those that are less violent. Further, the “ideal man” of Islam–which every Muslim is supposed to emulate–was a warlord, a caravan-raider, a pedophile, a slaver, a rapist, and a mass murderer.
There is *nothing* like this in Judaism.
Your implication that we impatient Islamophobes just need to wait for a few thousand years and Islam will reform itself is not founded in any evidence.
Also, the idea that our concern over Muslims raping and murdering us is indicative of failing to provide Muslims with the “opportunity” of stopping on their own is pretty ugly.
Pablo says
Please don’t put words in my mouth. I never called any one an Islamophobe or suggested you or anyone need to wait for a thousand years so that Islam will reform itself. In case you are unfamiliar with true western resolve, we can address multiple fronts simultaneously.
Walter Sieruk says
The book which is entitled THE CHALLENGE OF MODERNIZING ISLAM naturally has much to do with the idea of “reforming Islam.” There a reiteration of a specfic is now very appropriate .
On the topic of a reformation within Islam, a very different yet possible valid and true view on this had been explain by the Christian, Nabeel Qureshi ,who was in the past was a Muslim .He wrote in his book which is entitled ANSWERING JIHAD wrote about the suggestion “that Islam needs a reformation .What they may not realize is that radical Islam is the Islamic reformation. This might sound shocking, but consider: Just as the Protestant Reformation was an attempt to raze centuries of Catholic tradition and return to the canonical text, so radical Islam is an attempt to raze centuries of traditions of various schools of Islamic thought and return to the canonical text of the Quran and Muhammad’s life. This desire to return to the original form of Islam can be seen not only in the words of Sayyid Qutb, but also in his method. He focused almost entirely on references to the Quran. it is true also of the Muslim Brotherhood and ISIS today, whose publications and proclamations are punctuated by references to the Quran and Hadith literature. Radical Muslim organizations are explicit in their aim to reform Islam.” page 75. Further on pages 79,80 the author makes his case clear by writing that “Radical Islam is the Islamic reformation . The endeavor to modernize Islam and make it relevant to the twenty -first century is called progressive Islam. Progressive Muslim thought leaders, though few in number and limited in influence are present and are working to recreate Islam’s religious framework from within. Indeed, that is what it would take for Islam to become devoted to peace – not reformation but reimagination. “
Carl Goldberg says
Right on! Of course, reimagining Islam is a fool’sj errand. As they say, you can straighten a corkscrew, but then you don’t have a corkscrew anymore.
Pablo says
So what you are also saying is that Judaism as practiced in the 21st century isn’t Judiasm anymore.
gravenimage says
Pablo, your implication that stoning adulterers somehow represents the core of Judaism is not borne out by the facts.
Islam, however, is very much based on the conquest and oppression of Infidels.
Donald R Laster Jr says
And remember in Judaism the guilty party/parties is/are punished. Not innocent people or the victims of crimes. In Islam the victim is held responsible for what happens to them.
Walter Sieruk says
A view of the subject of the above mentioned book THE CHALLANGE OF MODERNIZING lSLAM is little bit ,at as seen from the best possible view as what Jesus warned about “Putting new wine into old bottles….” with would end in disaster, Matthew 9:1-8. Furthermore Islam is so thoroughly evil ,in esense that it cannot be “reformed.” For there is nothing good about Islam to have as a foundation to start a genuine reform on . The very best that can he hoped for is a watered down mild form of “Islam” with is non-violent but nevertheless still strong contradiction to the Bible about the very important doctrines about the Nature of Jesus as well as His last days on earth . So even a mild watered down “Islam” would still be a false religion. Therefore as for the idea of “modernizing and reforming Islam ” the author of that book is ,no doubt ,sincere but not realistic. As the Bible teaches “What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be numbered.” Ecclesiastes 1:15. [K.J.V.}
gravenimage says
Out now: The Challenge of Modernizing Islam, by Christine Douglass-Williams
…………………….
Thank you, Christine Douglass-Williams.
From everything I have seen, I don’t believe that Islam can be modernized or otherwise reformed–Islam itself says that it cannot be changed.
I would *love* to be proven wrong, though–nothing would make me happier. I’m sure this is true of everyone here.
Great to see someone presenting an overview of this issue.
Pablo says
“Pablo, your implication that stoning adulterers somehow represents the core of Judaism is not borne out by the facts.
Islam, however, is very much based on the conquest and oppression of Infidels”.
Your above post for some reason did not afford a reply option so I cut and pasted it here.
I guess when Jesus said (depending on the version of the bible) “he who is without sin cast the first stone” is not not factual in your books.
You are attempting to defend the indefensible when it comes to what is, as it relates to Judaism, as practiced in yesteryear. I know about Islam and the grave dangers it poses, but for some reason you are under the impression that I am defending it in its current form. I don’t care what they practice in their own countries; I only care about North America.
jewdog says
Sounds very interesting. In this vein I recently read that some lord high mucky-muck from the UAE denounced Doha’s Al Jazeera for inciting violence and anti-Semitism. The needle moves.
J_not_a says
I’d like to write a book – “The Utter Futility of Modernizing Islam”: The Deluded and The Wide Bottomless Chasm They Face”
(no disrespect intended towards Christine)
Frank Riley says
A reformed Islam will always lack logicality and always be in danger of being brought back by its zealots to those clearly stated foundational texts. Alas!
Bad Juju says
Allah is Satan – Modernize Satan !
You don’t believe me ? Or you don’t get it ?
Then read the Koran, not bit by bit, where you forget the first before you finish the last, but all at once, at one reading, from cover to cover, then you’ll know that Allah is Satan and Islam is Satanism, and Islam has no redeeming value. Then you’ll know that when you get done “Modernizing” Islam and removing all that is Evil in Islam, there will be nothing left.
Anything in the Koran that “appears” to be of value is merely camouflage, to cover up the Evil, the sugar coating on the pill that makes the poison go down without arousing suspicion. Remove the Evil from Islam and the camouflage has no purpose, and falls away, and turns to dust.
Modernize Islam ? – NO ! – Eradicate Islam !
DiMu says
I’m tired of endless conversations about Islam. It is an abomination on the same level as ‘Mein Kampf’. End of story.
Mohammed was psycho-nutcase who came from a savage culture. But as modern Western society becomes increasingly pathological, as it continues to convert a gutted Christianity into a self-indulgent, secular victims’ rights program and as we continue to embrace the primitive – I’d say Islam is perfectly at home in the West.
Maky Lemur says
ISLAM DELENDA EST.
elee says
HEAR HEAR
John Forbes says
At least there appears to be a START to a REAL PUSH back against this IDEOLOGY of ISLAM that seeks domination & an end to our DEMOCRACIES !
The hardest bit may be getting our COWARDLY leaders to stand & be counted !!
eur says
Islam has already had its reform and counterreform … it was called salfism. Muslim communities and countries always tend to return to the root of Islam … The images of Afghan and Iranian women in miniskirts and driving, IEgyptians and magrebies without veil … was a mirage … they wanted to imitate the way of life of the metropoli (Paris, Berlin, London …). As they were decolonized they returned to barbarism, to social control … to enslave body and mind Islamic society has never been modern nor will it ever be, Islam is what it is … it is frozen in time and is a tool of destruction of cultures and civilizations.
John A. Marre says
Reforming Islam would mean that it would no longer be Islam. Without coercion, deceit and violence it would no longer be Islam.
Troybeam says
Let’s get real here: there is no reforming Islam.
No matter how it seems possible it is not, the writings in the Koran demand no change or death to those that try.
What is possible: the removal of persons that are Muslim from every nation that is not Islamic: send back each and every Muslim to their home nation if an immigrant has any children born to them as well , if a Muslim is born into a nation and supports sharia over a nations legal system then ship them out as well: the idea here is to keep each nation its own sovereignty.
Any nation is not obligated to support refugees who bled the nation’s resources and attack its citizens. To do so is just asking for your nation’s demise.
What is more important to you: your life, your home that you worked for, paid for, your job or the welfare of a person that has no intention to assimilate into your culture but to bled it dry, attack and abuse its citizens and demand that you change to appease the lifestyle they choose to bring with them.
Wellington says
You can have Muslims who don’t fully implement the tenets of Islam (for one reason or another—-ignorance of their own faith, inertia, laziness, etc.). You can have Islam go into a slumber mode as it did to a great extent in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. But you cannot reform Islam anymore than you could reform Marxism or Nazism because, like Marxism and Nazism, Islam in its ideological blueprint is totalitarian to the core and there is no reforming a totalitarian ideology. Can’t be done. And about no other major religion, or virtually any minor religion for that matter, can it be said that totalitarian principles exist in that religion’s theological blueprint. Islam is unique here and this particular uniqueness places a huge burden on all mankind.
Man is “stuck” with Islam and that’s a damn shame, but one thing that is imperative to do, especially for free societies (or what’s left of them), is to accurately characterize Islam as the giant negative that it is. Then go from there and shame Islam and Muslims so that eventually (hopefully) the worst religion of all time loses huge numbers of adherents and what’s left of it functions only on the margins of one polity after another. I see this approach as the most realistic of all approaches to insure Islam wanes and that freedom is sustained for surely it is a fool’s errand to ever think that Islam and freedom can co-exist. They are polar opposites. Forever.
patriotliz says
So I’ll assume (spoiler alert) that Islam can’t be modernized.
The only REAL solution would be deprive this political-militaristic supremacist ideology of it’s “religion” status so it can’t gain entry like a thief in the night or we need to change the definition of “religion.”
Too late now.
Why Islam can’t be reformed by Bill Warner:
https://youtu.be/H6kWrI0V0LQ
elee says
Thanks for running this article. Perusal of the above Comments revives my morale.
C oach says
Islam has been killing for 1400 years. It is time to be realistic. Islam is the Koran preached in Mosques. It is the education and indoctrination of children. Something drastic needs to be done. The world will end sooner than we will see the results but here goes.
Eliminate all mosques worldwide. Imprison all Muslim teachers and burn the Koran, Hadith and Sura.
Then suppress the protests.No need to kill anybody.
Then return to God.
Donald R Laster Jr says
You don’t burn the books, you talk about what is actually in the books so people know the facts. And you remove Mohammad from the pedestal he is on by dealing with what he really was – a thief, murderer, pedophile, rapist, sodomite, liar, slaver, etc. All of which are in the books. And then ask the question – do you want you children, family, and friends to be those things or subject to those things?