Ultimately, religions like Islam, Christianity, and Judaism are defined by what Muslims, Christians, and Jews actually say and do. There is no religion outside of religious believers — for better or for worse. Dealing with a religious tradition requires dealing with what religious believers themselves teach and do; reforming a religious tradition means reforming what religious believers say and do. That, then, is the goal of the the contributors to Safi’s book: to expose some of the problems with what Muslims say and do and then to explain how the teachings and actions can be improved in the name of justice and pluralism:
- “As Muslims, we owe it to ourselves to come to terms with the problems inside our own communities. All societies have their beautiful and noble citizens, along with their share of hateful and extremist ones. Muslims are human, not one ounce less and not one ounce more than any other people. We too have our saints and sinners, our fanatical zealots and compassionate exemplars. At this stage of history our primary responsibility is to come to terms with the oppressive tyrants and fanatics inside our own communities, our own families, and our own hearts. Hiding behind the simple assertion that “Islam is a religion of peace” does not solve our problems.”
If only similar sentiments were expressed more often! Of course, this is not to say that the book is perfect — one notable problem is the absence of any articles explicitly dealing with the question of how progressive Muslims should deal with the Qur’an or the Hadith. Both sets of texts are filled with material which is inimical to progressive social and political causes, but because a basic tenet of Islam is that the Qur’an comes directly from God, it is very difficult to “interpret away” the more unpleasant passages. Articles deal with specific issues, like feminism and gays, but there is no systematic treatment of problematic scriptures — that’s something that is really needed.
Aside from that, however, this really is the perfect book for learning more about the Muslim dialogue over justice, equality, and pluralism. The dialogue isn’t very large or loud just yet, but hopefully it will come to play a bigger role in Muslim communities around the world, not to mention between Muslim and non-Muslim communities as they seek to find better ways to live together despite their differences and disagreements. Everywhere along the borders between Islam and other religions there is conflict and warfare, more so than between other religious groups. Muslims need to overcome this conflict — something that may be possible with the help of those such as the contributors to this book.
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