Zach LarkinsTHE MUSLIM DARK AGE
Salim Mansur is a Muslim who writes for the Toronto Sun newspaper. He is well respected and level headed when it comes to issues dealing with Muslims and Islam. Recently, he wrote an article concerning individuals from various professions and different ethnicities sharing a connection with Islam gathering in St. Petersburg, Fla. The meeting was billed as Secular Islam Summit. A statement, The St. Petersburg Declaration, was released which calls for an affirmation of individual rights and freedom of conscience for Muslims and non-Muslims alike in the Muslim world.
The declaration begins, "We are secular Muslims, and secular persons of Muslim societies. We are believers, doubters, and unbelievers, brought together by a great struggle, not between the West and Islam, but between the free and the unfree." This is important. While the minority terrorists make all the headlines and give the Western world a distorted view of Islam, the declaration says the Muslims must first clean their own house if they wish the truth to prevail. The denial of freedom across the Muslim world by those who rule cruelly is the heart of Islam's malady.
At a meeting organized by the Dutch government in the Hague in early 2006, Ibn Warraq, one of the organizers of the summit, said, "What we need now is an Age of Enlightenment in the Islamic world. Without critical examination of Islam, it will remain unassailed in its dogmatic, fanatical, medieval fortress; ossified, totalitarian and intolerant." There is no prohibition against critically examining Islam, in fact, it is outright un-Islamic, but men wielding swords supported by men functioning as a quasi-priestly class effectively set the boundaries of Islam as public faith early in Arab-Muslim history. Those who do question this brand of "official Islam" have suffered grievously.
The Muslim world's emergence out of its Dark Age requires "the separation of religion from state and the observance of universal human rights." Then will come, hopefully, reforms ending "Sharia law, fatwa courts, clerical rule," and elimination of such practices as "female circumcision, honour killing, forced veiling, and forced marriage that further the oppression of women." Here in the West, the media repeatedly demands to know where are "moderate" Muslims, if any, publicly opposing Muslim violence done by invoking Islam. Yet, rare as they may be, when such an event as the St. Petersburg meeting occurs it goes mostly unreported by the same media. Individuals coming together to push for Islamic reform may be small in number and generally unknown to the public outside their circle of friends and supporters, but such modest beginnings for events of great consequences are not uncommon in history. All we need do is look to the likes of Martin Luther for proof of religious reform. On civil reform, we have Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King.
A successful Islamic reform will occur when many more Muslims insist on the "release of Islam from its captivity to the totalitarian ambitions of power-hungry men and the rigid strictures of orthodoxy."
We can only hope it comes sooner than later.
Sources: Salim Mansur Pulling Muslims From Dark Age The Toronto Sun
The declaration begins, "We are secular Muslims, and secular persons of Muslim societies. We are believers, doubters, and unbelievers, brought together by a great struggle, not between the West and Islam, but between the free and the unfree." This is important. While the minority terrorists make all the headlines and give the Western world a distorted view of Islam, the declaration says the Muslims must first clean their own house if they wish the truth to prevail. The denial of freedom across the Muslim world by those who rule cruelly is the heart of Islam's malady.
At a meeting organized by the Dutch government in the Hague in early 2006, Ibn Warraq, one of the organizers of the summit, said, "What we need now is an Age of Enlightenment in the Islamic world. Without critical examination of Islam, it will remain unassailed in its dogmatic, fanatical, medieval fortress; ossified, totalitarian and intolerant." There is no prohibition against critically examining Islam, in fact, it is outright un-Islamic, but men wielding swords supported by men functioning as a quasi-priestly class effectively set the boundaries of Islam as public faith early in Arab-Muslim history. Those who do question this brand of "official Islam" have suffered grievously.
The Muslim world's emergence out of its Dark Age requires "the separation of religion from state and the observance of universal human rights." Then will come, hopefully, reforms ending "Sharia law, fatwa courts, clerical rule," and elimination of such practices as "female circumcision, honour killing, forced veiling, and forced marriage that further the oppression of women." Here in the West, the media repeatedly demands to know where are "moderate" Muslims, if any, publicly opposing Muslim violence done by invoking Islam. Yet, rare as they may be, when such an event as the St. Petersburg meeting occurs it goes mostly unreported by the same media. Individuals coming together to push for Islamic reform may be small in number and generally unknown to the public outside their circle of friends and supporters, but such modest beginnings for events of great consequences are not uncommon in history. All we need do is look to the likes of Martin Luther for proof of religious reform. On civil reform, we have Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King.
A successful Islamic reform will occur when many more Muslims insist on the "release of Islam from its captivity to the totalitarian ambitions of power-hungry men and the rigid strictures of orthodoxy."
We can only hope it comes sooner than later.
Sources: Salim Mansur Pulling Muslims From Dark Age The Toronto Sun
