Islamic doctrine is static and boring, People are interesting

Submitted by Dave (United States), Dec 31, 2018 at 10:09

From what I have read, ever since the tenth century "the gates of ijtihad have been closed", thereby precluding any meaningful updating or reinterpretation of Islamic doctrine. This means that the Islamic canon has been left in a static state for centuries, and that one must look outside of it at the actions of individuals for interesting ideas and initiatives.

While Islamists are usually as boring, and intolerant, as the doctrine they slavishly follow, some of them are violently opposed to other Islamists: For example, there's the Egyptian, UAE and KSA opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood and other fanatical movements that threaten their regimes (leading to some rapprochement with Israel); there are the few putative reformers, who generally get nowhere; the apostates, whose intellectual power and message can sometimes be inspiring, and a silent minority whose basic human decency transcends any ideology.

Also of interest are the non-Muslims. Their reactions to Islam run the full gamut from naive to furious, and it is their wisdom, or lack of it, which will determine whether we can successfully defend ourselves from barbarism, or not. They are slowly wising up.

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