Recall in 2015 the highly publicized call by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi for a religious “revolution” and reform of Islam, a call that drew global accolades. Sisi declared, among other things: “Is it possible that 1.6 billion people [Muslims] should want to kill the rest of the world’s inhabitants – that is 7 billion […]
France: Imam gets thousands of death threats for calling beheaded teacher a ‘martyr for freedom of expression’
Kudos to Chalghoumi. His position in defense of the freedom of speech should be expected of every Muslim who enters a Western country. Instead, Westerners have kowtowed to Islamic supremacists, making it also risky for those Muslims who choose to respect the principles and laws of Western nations. One post in Arabic on Twitter read: […]
Reform in Islam?: Interviews with Islamic Theology Students in Turkey Tell a Different Story
A master’s degree thesis recently written in Turkey reveals the attitudes of the students at two Islamic studies departments concerning violence against women, polygamy and gender-based segregation in education. The findings of the thesis make us once again pose this significant question: Would an “Islamic reform” make the Muslim communities more humanitarian and a safer […]
“American Muslim Agenda: Muslims Together Building A Cohesive America”: Genuine Reform or Smokescreen?
Dr. Mike Ghouse has accomplished an amazing feat. He has become the final and perfect interpreter of Islam. At least he seems to feel that way. In his view, the essence of Islam is totally in keeping with liberal Western values. Islam has become a thoroughly American religion with scarcely any connection to the traditional […]
Edip Yuksel’s “Manifesto for Islamic Reform”: A Disguised Apology for an Idealized Islam
Edip Yuksel is a Kurdish American Muslim author and adjunct philosophy professor at Pima Community College, Tucson, Arizona. Yuskel was in the ranks of the Islamic movements in Turkey, in the 1980s, together with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and he was imprisoned for his radical Islamist views. But later, in 1986, Yuskel had a […]
Muslim “reformer” at Clarion’s Preventing Violent Extremism program outraged at violent rioters being called “evil”
Lost 600 followers the last 72 hours for openly supporting protestors. — Shireen Qudosi (@ShireenQudosi) May 31, 2020 Categorizing people whose behavior we don't approve of as "evil" is how we got here. #riots2020 https://t.co/e8g1NfEhIW — Shireen Qudosi (@ShireenQudosi) May 31, 2020 Shireen Qudosi, according to her Clarion Project bio, “serves as Clarion Project’s National […]
Philadelphia: Imam says “We don’t want any progressive Islam….We do not support or advocate for ‘modern Islam'”
All the smooth-talking and soothing professional moderate Muslims who have so beguiled so many people who should know better should take note of this, and explain exactly how Nafis Abu Zayd is misunderstanding Islam when he denies any interest in a reformed Islam. The West is staking its future on the reform of Islam, and […]
Al-Azhar Sheikh rejects idea that Islam needs reform: “War between heritage and modernity made up to hold us back”
I would have said that this hits hardest those professional moderates who have grown rich and laden with honors by telling Western audiences what they want to hear, that is, feeding them soothing half-truths and outright lies about how Islam will soon reform and is or soon will be completely compatible with Western secular governance, […]
France: Tariq Ramadan charged with two more counts of rape, supporters say it’s all a “Zionist plot” against him
“Supporters of Ramadan, who is a professor of contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford’s St. Anthony’s College, have called the accusations against him part of a ‘international Zionist plot’ to blacken his name.” Of course! What else could it possibly be? “Tariq Ramadan formally charged with two more counts of rape,” RFI, February 13, 2020: The […]
The Adventures of Asking Muslim Reformers to Categorically Choose between Western Laws and Islam
On January 7th Jihad Watch published my article titled “93% of Muslim Public Officials Would Not Express Support for the Constitution They Swore to Uphold.”[1] This article was a result of a survey of four questions I had sent to eighty Muslim public officials across the United States. With each of the four questions the […]
Muslim reformer: Many Muslims are misled into believing they must help Islam dominate the world
Misled? How could they have been misled in this way? Could it have been from Islamic texts including these? “And fight them until there is no fitnah and religion is all for Allah.” (Qur’an 8:39) “Fight those who do not believe in Allah or the Last Day, and do not forbidden what has been forbidden […]
Shireen Qudosi and the question of Islamic reformers
Recently I had an unpleasant online encounter with the self-styled “Muslim Reformer” Shireen Qudosi that highlighted some of the principal problems with the entire Muslim reform movement in the West, and showed why so many people are skeptical of these “reformers.” Please pardon the personal references in the first part of this; this post is […]
Islamic Reform: Craig Considine’s Bridge to Nowhere
In the years since 9/11, the Islamic reform movement has advanced sufficiently that two distinct camps have emerged: reformers and bridge-builders. Genuine reformers seek to transform how Islam is practiced, while bridge-builders seek to improve how Islam is perceived, mainly by non-Muslims.Reformers tend to be Muslims who fault their co-religionists from previous centuries for writing […]
The Muslim’s Inner Struggles (Part 3)
Never before in the history of Islam has it faced a danger such as this. For the first time, Muslims en masse are reclaiming their place in humanity and rejoining history. Islam has always relied on Muslims being unequivocally Muslim in clear contradistinction to the kafir, the unbeliever, treating the values and mores of the infidel with […]
German politician: “We need a peaceful and tolerant Islam”
Yes, we do. But how are we going to get it when Islam’s holy book contains passages like these — passages that few even dare acknowledge exist? “And kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out from where they drove you out; persecution is worse than slaughter. But fight them not by the […]
94 Muslim scholars condemn Muslim cleric for saying “Allah” means “God” and Jews and Christians aren’t unbelievers
Muhammad Tahir ul-Qadri is widely hailed as a “moderate” because of his massive Fatwa on Terrorism and Suicide Bombings, but that jaw-droppingly windy document is just another exercise in deception. In fact, Tahir ul-Qadri is the framer of Pakistan’s inhuman blasphemy laws. But these 94 Muslim scholars from the UK, India and Pakistan are still […]
UK: “Moderate” imam Usama Hasan claims he would “deradicalize” ISIS bride by using work of jihadist scholar
Usama Hasan of the UK’s Quilliam Foundation gives the impression in this article that Ibn Taymiyya was a moderate. Hasan fails to mention that Ibn Taymiyya also said: “Since lawful warfare is essentially jihad and since its aim is that the religion is God’s entirely and God’s word is uppermost, therefore according to all Muslims, […]
Maajid Nawaz Has an Image to Protect
Asked Thursday whether he would debate Maajid Nawaz, Robert Spencer replied: “Yes, of course I would. But Maajid Nawaz won’t debate me.” It isn’t hard to understand why that is true. Maajid Nawaz has an image to protect: that of being an all-knowing Muslim reformist who’s never wrong. He presents himself as a softer, gentler, […]
Hugh Fitzgerald: “Islamic Modernist” Mustafa Akyol Betrays More of His Worldview Than He Likely Intended (Part 4)
Whereas the West views many Middle Eastern countries as medieval, Akyol said, Middle Eastern countries view the West as exploitative and hypocritical. He said the best way for Western countries to promote secularization in Middle Eastern countries is to remain principled and set an example through their actions. The West does not think of Middle […]
Hugh Fitzgerald: “Islamic Modernist” Mustafa Akyol Betrays More of His Worldview Than He Likely Intended (Part 3)
Akyol paints a picture of progress, steady but very slow, in encouraging change in Islam. But in fact, there has been backsliding in the very place where a secular Muslim society had been taken the farthest: Kemalist Turkey. Erdogan turns out to be the anti-Ataturk, he and his aides appearing proudly with their hijabbed wives […]