Reform possible

Submitted by Alana (Canada), Jul 3, 2013 at 01:03

Given I'm the type to easily believe 12 impossible things before breakfast, I will tell you it is not just faith and imagination on which I base this slender hope. It is history itself. Why should Islam be any different from other religions, which we see move, grow and change with and/or over time. When I see young Muslims change dress, wear makeup, show their hair, take off their hijab on Egyptian TV, write like Irshad Manji, text and increasingly acquire internet access, I have hope.

Look at how Christianity and Judaism have morphed over time, retaining, still, some factions of fundamentalist thought, belief and practice. It is a global village, after all, and contagion or progress, not matter how change is interpreted that happens by proximity, imitation, confusion, collaboration, osmosis and population explosion, social media cannot forever be banned or prohibited. Islam is a comparatively young religion and is now going through growing pains with the clash of cultures. Also, sheer economic necessity chips away at the necessity for incremental, undetectable but perceptible change, with desire for upward mobility, perhaps, eventually overriding moribund, static traditionalism. If The Crusaders can become outmoded and illegitimate, if the shttetl has disappeared, what is stopping creeping modernity from slowly "infecting" or effecting forward reform? A single drop of water will eventually wear down even stone.

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