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Liberal Islam by keeny ali
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Liberal Islam |
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Education,Islam,Science & Technology
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Islamism's visibility and power have waxed and waned throughout the middle and latter part of the twentieth century. Late in the twentieth century modernist discourses were revived and strengthened, alongside what has been termed ‘Islamic liberalism’. 5 According to Kurzman, Islamic liberals ‘sought to resuscitate the reputation and accomplishments of earlier modernists’. Certainly, one finds liberal elements in the thought of those earlier modernists and, in some respects, Islamic liberalism dates back to the very beginning of the Nahda. However, a distinct trend emerged around the 1970s, on the heels of the Islamic revival, and became more prevalent in the mid 1980s with Gorbachev's launching of perestroika and as elections were held in a number of Islamic countries and governments seemed to be transformed, or on the verge of being transformed, by forces of civil society. Contemporary Islamic liberalism is distinct from both Islamic modernists and Islamists in three respects. First, against Islamist slogans that ‘Islam is the solution’, and secularist claims that Islam is the problem, Islamic liberals attribute most social and political ills to a lack of democracy and basic rights, especially freedom of thought. Although in some cases the focus on democracy might be interpreted as merely a strategic compromise on the part of Islamists to protest against secular states that exclude Islamist parties from participation, among liberal Islamic thinkers the argument is consistently aimed at both secular and theocratic states. Liberal Islamic thinkers maintain that a democratic system best codifies and preserves rights and duties that can curtail arbitrariness and authoritarianism on the part of the state. Among the most important values attributed to democracy in liberal Islamic thought is tolerance, and among the most important rights are the freedoms of thought and speech. Rahman argues that ‘difference of opinion, provided it is meaningful, has to be assigned a high positive value’. Further, in national contexts where Muslims comprise a minority or are only a marginal majority, liberal Islamic thinkers have expressed a particular interest in the protection of religious rights and minorities. Others quote Quranic passages to support an ideal of a society respectful of religious differences. The second distinct aspect of liberal Islamic thinkers is that they eschew efforts to seize state power, or even to Islamicize the state, and focus instead on reviving an Islamic ethos at the societal level. According to 'Abd al-Raziq, government ‘is a worldly aim, and God, may He be elevated, has rendered it a matter to be resolved by our minds, and has left people free to manage it in the manner that their minds, knowledge, interests, desires, and tendencies would guide them’ (in Kurzman, 1998: 35). The book generated considerable controversy when it was published and 'Abd al-Raziq was widely criticized and suffered the loss of his academic and juridical positions. Muhammad Khalaf-Allah (Egypt, 1916–97), an Islamic liberal and similarly controversial figure, takes 'Abd al- Raziq's argument one step further by suggesting that not only does the Qur'an allow human beings to manage the affairs of government, but it requires them to do so and in a democratic manner. Like earlier thinkers, Khalaf- Allah advocates shura, which he interprets as democracy. According to Khalaf-Allah, God has delegated to Muslims the responsibility to establish a system of consultation so that they can decide upon political matters for themselves. As with Islamic writings on democracy, it is sometimes difficult to assess the extent to which some statements critical of projects aimed at Islamicizing the state indicate a realist strategy, as opposed to a liberalist conviction. For example, the International Forum for Islamic Dialogue (IFID) is one of many modern, liberal Islamic organizations that currently exist throughout the world. The IFID publishes a newsletter in English and Arabic entitled Islam21 and provides an interactive website for exchanging and developing ideas among Muslims. However, in general, liberal Islamic thinkers demonstrate a significant shift toward replacing theocratic arguments with those aimed at instilling or protecting an Islamic ethos. Some, like Khalaf-Allah, argue that ‘if any government is to be described as Islamic, it should be in the sense of “Islam-the-culture” (al-hlam al-hadara) and not of “Islam-the-religion” (al-hlam al-din)’. The Egyptian jurist Shaykh Muhammad Sa'id al-'Ashmawy (b. 1932) argues for the same conclusion, based on different premises: The principle of separating politics from religion, that is, civic rule, the so-called secularism, is needed.
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