First of all, I tremendously respect this woman Gina Khan, although she wears the label of a "Secular Muslim", I think she'd be better labeled a "Secular humanist", but whatever she chooses to call herself is fine with me. I too think that the best & easiest course of action for Muslims would be simply Reformation, rather than wholesale eradication, which is sure to cause much more psycholigical trauma to the devout, not to mention that its ripple effects can cause tremendous upheaval in the non Muslim world as well.
However, I see certain genuine problems with Reformation:
First, even if all the hadiths are discredited-the Quran will have to remain as the bedrock of the faith or Islam will be
reformed out of existence. In the Quran itself, unlike in any other religious faith-there're unequivocal calls to kill
"unbelievers". While the Christian & Jewish scriptures too can provide ample support for intolerance & have, the people that the OT urges to kill are
Canaanites, Ammonites, Hittite, Perizzite etc. While an intolerant Jew or Muslim may very well interpret these to extend to other people-& historically often have, especially Christians-there were significant elements in both faiths to counter this. Judaism hasn't been a proselytizing faith, it can & does happily co exist with other faiths which don't cause any threat to it-even with idolaters, be it the Indians or the Pre Islamic Arab polytheists, it also accepts the doctrine of Universal Salvation so non Jews aren't believed to be burning in Hell & thus there is no urgency to either convert or despise them. Christianity inherited the problematic "violent" bits of the OT, to compound that, they added on the doctrine of salvation only to Christians-a potentially intolerant combo-with similar intolerant results from the obliteration of Hellenic pagans to the ruthless conquistadores.
Yet even Christianity had a very strong basis for Reformation-namely Jesus Christ.Christian children or adults are urged to be Christ like-which is surely quite an example worth emulation. Despite a few of his words, "I come not to bring peace...but a sword" the example that his life provides is one of endless tolerance & forgiveness, while Jews were persecuted by Christians for
deicide Jesus had urged nothing but forgiveness & while Jesus' followers often persecuted other faiths Jesus personally never did.
Islam offers precious little glimmer of hope in this regard. Not only does the Quran preach exclusivist salvation, it also asks readers to persecute, not extinct groups of people like "Canaanites" & "Ammorites" but mentions people by faith-Kill the idolater, Torture the Jew, Torment the Christian..." etc. This is further compounded by Prophet Mohammed's actions. While Christian children are urged to be like Jesus, Mohammed is the ideal man-the
insaan i kamil for Muslims & regarded as an example for all time-unfortunately there are few misdeeds he didn't so. He unlike Jesus personally destroyed Arab polytheism by smashing their idols & threatening to kill them should they come out of their homes to protect their idols, reduced the Jews to second class status from their former equality. Little basis for tolerance in him, his personal life too is seriously questionable to say the least.Also, unlike the OT Prophets or Hindu gods-Mo is not simply one of plentiful important theological figures in Islam-he is the most important character-his life is the role model. This primacy of Mohammed is repeated many times over in the Quran, Mo the mortal's authority is granted almost the same importance as Allah the immortal's.
The Qur'an 33:36, {It is not for a believing man nor a believing women, when
Allah and His Messenger have decreed a matter, to have the choice in their
affair; and whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger has surely gone astray
in manifest error.}
The Qur'an 4:59, {
O you who believe! Obey Allah, and obey the Messenger and
those of you who are in authority; and if you have a dispute concerning any
matter, refer it to Allah and His Messenger if you believe in Allah and the
Last Day; that is best and more suitable to the end.}
When Muslims recite the first article of faith-the Shahada-they repeat that Allah is the Only God & Mohammed is the Prophet of Allah. Notice the proximity with Divinity in which the Quran places him.
IMO, if a religious figure is this central to his faith-be it Jesus in Christianity, Buddha in Buddhism or Mohammed in Islam, it becomes of utmost importance that the bulk of his actions are admirable, at least not repulsive, in Mohammed's case this is sadly not so.
Finally there is the Quran itself, it isn't some great reservoir of tolerance or contemporary wishdom-even if Muslims discard the hadiths.
There are explicit permissions from Allah about wife beating, women's rights of inheritance is less than men's & on almost half the pages, the Quran urges believers to either kill or torment unbelievers.
Also, despite contemporary Muslims's claims that Arabic is a very complex language, Allah declares in the Quran that the faith was revealed in Arabic & in all clarity so that people comprehend, so if the language muddles the mind of believers regarding the Quran's contents, another of Allah's claims are nullified.
"Behold, We have sent it down in all clarity, in the Arabic tongue, so that you might encompass it with your reason." [12:2]
إِنَّا جَعَلْنَاهُ قُرْآنًا عَرَبِيًّا لَعَلَّكُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ
"Behold, We have made it a Qur'an in clear Arabic language that you may fully understand." [43:3]
The problem is worsened due to Muslim belief that the Quran is not simply the inspired word of Allah- as most Jews & Christians' hold their Scriptures to be-but the word of Allah reproduced verbatim. Quran means "recitation" Mohammed simply recited whatever Allah dictated via angel Gabriel. Obviously, changing the only God's inspired words are a possibility, whereas changing His dictation is tougher.
All these reasons make me uncertain about any possible Reformation.
Topic: Is an islamic reformation under way ?