Well, without making open efforts of persuasion, we might try to gather some good arguments for them...

Submitted by Alain Jean-Mairet (Switzerland), Dec 6, 2006 at 16:14

Because it is really hard to stand for moderate Islam. I mean, if it has to be an Islam, it has to take over Islamic scriptures, somehow, and you can doubt that anyone can find therein some good, consensual, arguments for building an society model that is "modern, moderate, democratic, liberal, good-neighborly, humane, and respectful of women". Even more so as those scriptures are sacred (for Muslims).

So one thing we could and should do is to dissect those scriptures for them. Not the Koran of course! Not the hadiths, not the Sira. All that is religious - it is for believers, Islamic believers. But the sharia. We are concerned by the sharia. It is reintroduced all over the world. Seven countries are even already applying its criminals laws.

Based on Islamic laws, we can prove that rigorist Islam does not work. We sure can show that a society where you have to be afraid of being killed because you crack a joke on the religion or on the reliability of a book that is not even properly edited, is not going to be creative any time soon.

We have to open manuals of Islamic laws and show that every time that the Islamic religion takes root somewhere, those laws are supposed to be applied. Mind you, those things ARE consensual. On the essentials, quite broad essentials.

I would take on Jihad, dhimma, hududs, slavery. Systematically so. Show that you don't have Islam without them, because Islam is where Islamic laws are being enforced and all versions of Islamic laws have those. And condemn those laws as criminal. Just as you would say Mob laws are criminal. They are, btw, according to no less than the European Court of Human Rights.

That would help feeding a debate. I mean, you would have solid proofs, of the quality required for making a case in front of a court, of the incompatibility of certain parts of Islam with basic social life and progress. On such a basis, I guess Muslims could work out some good reform projects. With their own Muslim ideas.

Yes, just like we have to destroy Islamism on the ground for making reformation possible, we have to destroy the bad laws of Islam in the modern minds so that Muslims can build new ones. Not like those copies of ours they had to adopt during colonies, but their owns. You know, something to be proud of.

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