That's very kind of you, PCMadness.

Submitted by Nabil Ahmad (Australia), Aug 27, 2006 at 02:14

That's very kind of you, PCMadness.

Unfortunately, I don't know too many others like myself. I do know of two organizations here in the USA, the Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism and the Islamic Supreme Council of America (at least that's what I think their names are) have emerged recently with strongly "independent Muslim" and "pro-America" agendas. The former one is fairly new and might have been started up after 9-11. The latter is much older, I think, and promotes diversity of ideas and thoughts among Muslims.

I myself lean strongly in favor of the Hanafi school of thought and a bit towards the Maliki school of thought as well. The Hanafi school of thought is the oldest of the four major Sunni schools of thought and is the most progressive and open; it doesn't just rely on the Qur'an and Hadith for legislation and answers. When something doesn't appear to have been addressed by either, we are to look to rational reasoning for answers.

It is unfortunate that a lot of Muslims fear "thinking outside the box". The Qur'an repeatedly asks mankind "Have ye no sense?". To me, Islam is a religion of rational thinking and not just the literal interpretation of texts. It needs to be studied carefully and from a historical perspective. Then and only then does it make perfect sense. And I'm sure that the Bible is the same way...after all, it, too, contains revelations from God that are far older than those in the Qur'an, and if it is taken literally for what it is, the consequences would be disastrous. After all, there was a time when Christian monarchs in Europe looked at republican forms of government as "un-Christian", just as the screaming, hypocritical mullahs of today look at them as "un-Islamic". They're just worried about losing their ability to lead the great, unwashed masses like sheep.

Have a nice day and hope and work for the best.

Nabil Ahmad

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