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Whatâs Right With Islam: A New Vision for Mulsims and the West
From Slate, an article by Lee Smith.... It is vital to U.S. security interests that Muslim moderates rout their opponents, and Americans need to do whatever they can to help that happen. In Whatâs Right With Islam: A New Vision for Muslims and the West, Feisal Abdul Rauf explains how both the American government and private citizens, non-Muslim and Muslim, can take the initiative. ... As Americans helped shape and reconfigure the beliefs and practices of Christianity and Judaism around the world, Abdul Rauf argues that the future of Islam as a moderate, tolerant, and progressive faith rests with American Muslims. Whatâs Right With Islam is an important and often intellectually exciting book that describes Islam as an extension of the Judeo-Christian heritage. The three monotheistic faithsâJudaism, Christianity, and Islamâconstitute "the Abrahamic tradition," whose core principle is in the second commandment: "To love our neighbors," Abdul Rauf writes, "our fellow human beings, regardless of race, religion, or cultural background, as we love ourselves." .... The idea of a Judeo-Christian heritage is American-made, and not an eternal verity of Western civilization; it was forged by a society comprising many cultures that had to coexist. The uproar over The Passion of the Christ indicates how fragile that idea still is. Raised in Kuwait, and educated in Egypt, England, and Malaysia, Abdul Rauf, who came to the United States in 1965, is a natural born pluralist. He is imam at a mosque a few blocks from the World Trade Center that is fairly well-known for its open-door, open-arms attitude. Some of the mosqueâs visitors are just curious about Islam, or more particularly about Sufism, a sect thatâs tolerant of other ideas and creeds. Influenced by Greek and Hindu philosophy and Christianity, Sufism is usually referred to as Islamic mysticism, but up until the beginning of the last century, it was also essentially mainstream, or popular, Islam, a hodgepodge of beliefs and practices that places great emphasis on mediators, or auliyaâ, who intercede with God on behalf of righteous petitioners. .... ... contrary to the beliefs of many Western commentators, the Muslim world has had plenty of Martin Luthers; the problem is that so far none of their reformations resulted in anything looking like the E.U. And yet the once-disdained and inclusive creed of Sufism might just redeem the ironic narrative of Muslim reformâat least if Abdul Rauf has his way. Sufis are known for their inner-directed orientation and disregard for worldly affairs. .... A potential audience, Abdul Rauf writes, "may be a young American Muslim woman or man confused between the picture of Islam ⊠projected in the American media by Osama Bin Laden and that practiced by your sweet grandmother." Of course itâs essential that, like all Americans, American Muslims engage the "Abrahamic tradition," instead of triumphalist politics. .... typically Muslim immigrants have come here to partake of the same liberties and opportunities that every ethnic and religious group has sought in America. Indeed, itâs worthwhile noting that for many Muslims, their coming to the United States also meant fleeing places where thereâs an awful lot that is not right with Islam. .... Itâs time for an American Muslim leader to translate the best of the American dream to the Muslim world. After all, Islam has had plenty of Martin Luthers, the next Muslim reformer needs to be a Martin Luther King. Posted by: Mike Sylwester 2004-06-05 |
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