Islam is Work-in Progress

Submitted by Iftekhar Hai (United States), Jul 5, 2006 at 18:29

I agree about radical interpretation of events, hadiths and The Quran. This has been the problem not only with People of other Faiths (do not use Non-Muslim) but also with the majority of the Muslim community.

Personally, I think what is needed is help from Jewish and Christian religious scholars for refinement and extra-judicial explanation of the Islamic scriptures.

This was done in the past by Moses Maimonides when the Abrahamic family in Spain had the Golden Age. This fed the renaissance of Europe because there was cross-fertilization of ideas emanating from the Abrahamic scriptures.

During the Moghul rule in India, the Golden Age was triggered by scholars from all religious traditions, they were called, "nav ratan" meaning "Nine Gems" referring to scholars from nine different religious groups. This formed the basis of Moghul rule in India which came to a halt because of radical Auranzeb, the last Moghul King.

Your article has fostered imagination in me - that such a confluence of high moral standards coming from the Abrahamic traditions and also from Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. can play a positive role in defeating radicalism not only in Islam but also in the other faiths.

We all are so deeply connected and made interdependent on each other. This kind of dependency is bound to increase. Therefore let us combat radicalism through education, economics, ecological consciousness. This 21st century is an American Century we must try to spread the concept of one set of human rights for all the people living on any part of this world.

Iftekhar Hai, President, United Muslims of America Interfaith Alliance, CA.

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