Refofrmation and women

Submitted by K.H. Ahmed (United States), May 10, 2008 at 08:34

Proud Indian,

It cannot be the values of the west nor the outside intervention of others. It took many years of struggle and oddly the exposure to the ideas of the east and middle east for the hegemony of the Catholic church to be overcome in Europe. It will take many years of struggle and exposure to the west and modern thought for Islam to reform. However, I do believe the forceful intervention of women both publicly and in the privacy of their homes will hasten the needed reforms in Islam.

We need to remember that this subjegation of women is not inherent in the Quran. No matter how many versus some will take out of context we know that the underlying thrust of the Quran was one of equality if not superiority in the eyes of God. We also know that much of this oppression of women comes from later Persian influences and the regrattable use of sunnah to instruct the faithful in daily life.

There are many women in Islam who are working towards a restoration of some of the original values of Islam. When they will be successful I do not know but eventually they will be. As to Mansoor and Amin I really haven't read their oostings- generally if I see nothing but rants or scriptual quotes I don't go further. Fanatics of any religious persuasion bore and depress me. I for one don't see God, Allah or whatever in that particular light. Truly I am an odd mix of my fathers religion with a lot of eastern philosophy and quantum physics mixed in.

I post here mostly because as an American... I merely try to express that Islam as a philosophy deserves some respect as does the culture of the people who follow it. There are many moderate Muslims and many moderate Imams - but it"s the nut cases that the press and others like to follow - just as they like to follow the nut case Christian leaders.

So hopefully one moderate Muslim writer can connect with someone from India and perhaps someone from Pakistan and from that somehow sanity and humankind wins out.

Best of luck

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