is Islam reformable?

Submitted by Victor (United Kingdom), Jul 26, 2005 at 19:26

Seems unusual to have no Muslims contributing comments. Has everyone gone to ground? Big issue identified by Eva is : are there any solutions?

Europe had its reformation, wars of religion and enlightenment which civilised and secularised Christianity. There was a real attempt to reform Islamic socities for the first three quarters of the last century. Some leaders attempted to impose secularism, socialism and nationalism to reform their societies. People like Nasser, Attaturk and latterly the Shah of Iran may have gotten the wrong answers. But at least they realised that there was something radically wrong with their societies. They burned with a justifiable sense of inferiority at the economic and social backwardness that led their societies to be overshadowed by the West.

Even a westernised state like tiny Israel was able to lay the whole Arab world on its back in 1967 and 1973
.
Now Muslims must also look at the industrialisation of the Buddhist and Hindu civilisations to the East and wonder. Why is there no record of Muslim democracy anywhere in the world?

Is Islam dysfunctional in modern societal terms? Is this inevitable? Is it the result of the 'Arabisation' of Islam?
Dr Pipes, in the unlikely event of your running a Muslim country what would you do?

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