This guy presents the best arguments for secularization from a Muslim perspective:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp-9cxALXtAHere's the translation:
(I didn't translate everything, only the relevant parts.)
- Religious jealousy demands from us to protect our religion from being torn apart, and for Islam to be only part of legislation is to tear its true form--to take a part of Islamic law, and to take a part of French law to present a mix and call it a "modern Islamic state". But all the Islamic states that exist are actually a mix of French law and Islamic law, because the state by its very nature is not based on Islam. What Islam defines as a "nation" is very different from the modern understanding of a political nation. A nation in Sharia is the city where someone is born and there was no such thing as a political nation state.
- People who want to have Islamic law should have it in full and reject French law in full, rather than pick and choose which part of Islamic law suits them and which part of French law suits them, because that's truly tearing apart the religion, which is perfect and should not have anything added to it.
- An imperfect person should not be in control of the Quran, and we are all imperfect. The experiment of the Sharia was for the prophet, who was infallible. And that's the idea of the "imams" in Shia Islam: that only certain, divinely chosen people are infallible, and during the time of their absence, people ought to rule like the sane/intelligent people rule, without corrupting the name of Islam, so that if you commit a mistake in your rule, that mistake isn't blamed on the religion itself. Don't say that's the rule of God, because you don't know whether you're right or wrong. A religion is one thing and its application is something else, because the application is done by imperfect humans.
- When he went to the US, he met a Persian woman who worked for the church. He asked her when she reverted from Islam and entered Christianity, and she told him ages ago, but he didn't confront her but rather blamed it on the people who pretend that they're doing what God demands and therefore ruin the interpretation of Islam. She told him that he restored in him part of her trust in Islam. Therefore, a secular society would actually be more religious, because people would not be blaming the religion itself on the imperfections of the government.
- Part of secularism is that it protects religious institutions.
- When Islam is applied by someone other than a divinely chosen, infallible person, it has pros and cons, and its cons and problems are more than its pros. And that's what we have been suffering in the past fourteen centuries. For example, even though during the reign of Harun Al-Rasheed there was a lot of progress, his problem was that he didn't allow any other interpretation of Islam and the only Islam was his Islam, and any other person who spoke against it was killed, simply because he wasn't powerful enough and had only an idea, without any army or militia.
- He doesn't have a problem with ideologies, whether Islam or Marxism, but rather the problem is with their politicization, i.e. using them to control people and enslave them with an idea. And the foundation of Islam is free choice and agency, and being forced to be a Muslim by your father, your society and state, that cancels out the foundation of your very Islam. It's all based on freedom.
- Islamists worship the religion, not the god of the religion. There's a difference between using the religion as a means to worship God, and worshipping the religion itself. And that's where extremism comes from.
- Religion is like a car that takes you to Mecca. The goal is Mecca, not the car. So if you start circling the car and worshipping it, you have cut off the road that leads to the Ka'aba. And even the Ka'aba is a symbol, a means; the intention is to worship the God of the Ka'aba. If your goal for hajj is the Ka'aba itself, the Ka'aba becomes an idol, which is worshipped for itself rather than as a means. Even some people (who worship idols) are better than Muslims, because they use the idolatry to get closer to God. So there's a difference between worshipping the religion and worshiping God.
- If we want to implement Sharia, we have to implement it all, starting from jizya to killing those who are not the people of the book, to eliminating the nation state. For example, Iran has borders, but it should give citizenship to 1.5 billion Muslims, because Islam has no borders, so it should be the country of all Muslims. They should also eliminate the laws of permanent residency, as well as the ban that prevents Iranian women from marrying a non-Iranian man, etc.
- However, the Iranian experiment is an example of controlling religion (by imperfect men). It also has no roots in Shiite thought. Shia Islam revolves around refusing the government of Abu Bakr, because Abu Bakr wasn't infallible but took all the power of the infallible, i.e. the prophet. Fourteen centuries later, the Khomeini came along and did the same thing. So if the Khomeini's actions are right, then so were Abu Bakr's, and therefore there would be no difference between Sunni and Shiite. And if Shiites are insistent that Abu Bakr was wrong, then they should say that the Khomeini's power has nothing to do with Shia Islam. But the power of the Iranian experiment comes from the fact that the Khomeini is a charismatic leader.
- Even though the Quran is the perfect word of God, what do you think would happen if it fell into the hands of Satan? How would he make suicide bombers and killers out of them, etc.? The problem isn't with the Quran; it's with in whose hands it is.
- There's a difference between your understanding of the Quran and the Quran itself, but if people become disillusioned, they revert from the Quran itself.
- Obviously there are Islamists who disagree with him, but many he personally knows in the parliament actually agree with him but can't publicize their positions, because they built their platforms based on political Islam.
- The foundation of Sufism is actually for a person to step on and get rid of customs and traditions. To truly worship God, you have to worship him out of your own free will, not by pressure from your father or family or society or state.
- He tells the story of Al-Rumi, the Sufi theologian, who met a poor Dervish sitting trying to read a book but unable to, so he threw the book in the river. Al-Rumi got pissed off and asked why he would throw a book, how can he throw away science that cannot be retrieved. The poor man retrieved the book and said, Seek knowledge that isn't erased by water, knowledge that is solidified in the heart. Al-Rumi took him and said, Teach me what you have been taught. So the Dervish told him to go out, buy some wine and sell it. Al-Rumi was shocked, saying, How could you expect me to go and sell wine, which is prohibited by Islam, when I'm a religious leader and the people of this entire city are my followers? Later, Al-Rumi thought about it and indeed did what he was told to do; he bought some wine and went to sell it. Of course, the people were very ostracizing, some calling him crazy, others corrupt. After no one bought from him, he went back to the Dervish humiliated and asked for what next, and the Dervish said, That's it; you've arrived. Al-Rumi asked, Where have I arrived? I have lost all my personality. And the Dervish said, Exactly, you have a cancerous personality from the people's love of you, but now you've lost your public personality and returned to your true self. And that's the most important part of the religion and of interpreting the Quran. We have to get rid of our ego, because the ego prevents us from properly understanding the Quran. We should do things because we truly want to, and believe in things because we truly do, not because of any pressure.
Topic: Best arguments for secularizing Islam