Islam faces ‘deep crisis’

Islam is facing a “deep crisis” and needs urgent renewal from within, the leading Islam scholar and Oxford academic Tariq Ramadan warned last night.

Dr Ramadan, the professor of contemporary Islamic studies at the University of Oxford’s Oriental Insitute, said the religion was facing a crisis of authority but also of methodology.

He told a conference in Oxford: “We are talking about reforming the mind and not touching the essence of the religion.”

He challenged the authority of some Muslims who advise the Government, claiming they did not represent the community and were even “dangerous”.

Muslims were too much on the defensive, he said, and had much to offer the West, including a system of applied ethics to contribute to global debate on issues such as trafficking, debt, democracy and popular culture.

Being faithful to Islam meant moving towards jihad. “Jihad has nothing to do with holy war, it is only to do with effort. You reform yourself by resisting the bad.”

Dr Ramadan was speaking at Rethinking Islamic Reform, a conference at the Sheldonian in Oxford organised by the university’s Islamic Society, to an audience of Muslims and academics from throughout the world.

He said proof that Muslims were close to integrating in the West could be found in the rising divorce rate among Muslims. Talk of reform in Islam is controversial because of fears that the essence of the religion will be lost if its fundamental precepts are threatened.

Dr Ramadan insisted: “We are not talking about changing the religion we are talking about renewing understanding.” An example was the place of women and the debate over the headscarf. “The headscarf is an Islamic prescription. After that it is the right of the woman to wear it or not. It is her choice.”

The US Islamic scholar Sheikh Hamza Yusuf, who converted to Islam in 1977 after a car accident, and who was one of the authors of A Common Word, a document signed by Muslim scholars and addressed to Christian leaders calling for peace, acknowledged that it was difficult to persuade many people that a document such as the Koran, written 1,400 years ago, had relevance for today.

He said Muslims are “wary of messing with the calibration of their religion” and this will not change any time soon.

But Muslims historically have been tolerant of dissent and Islam began as a reformist religion.

“The problem is not extremism. Extremism is human and has always been there. The problem is violence in a civic society.”

He also acknowledged a loss of authority in Islam and questioned what right anyone had to refer to Osama Bin Laden, for example, as a sheikh, a designation, which gives him the status of a scholar. “Who made Osama bin Laden a sheikh? Osama bin Laden is an accountant.”

He said Britain was tolerant of eccentric uncles and should therefore tolerate an “eccentric religion”. The problem with talking about reform of Islam was that it was “more of a Christian term coming out of a Protestant reformation.”

In response to a question, he warned it would not be long before some of the largest cities in Britain had Muslim majorities. Muslims must get involved with community bodies such as local authorities to prepare for this. “Instead of rioting Muslims have to be thinking about establishing Muslim think tanks. We need to address these issues and eliminate the fear of Muslims. Fear of Muslims is not necessarily irrational for many people. The high crime rates for our communities are points of concern for many people.”

Recently a House of Commons committee on preventing violent extremism found that efforts towards reform had resulted in “stigmatising” and “potentially alienating” the Muslim community.

Sarah Joseph, a convert to Islam, said that renewal within the faith was not impossible: “Islam regenerates - new face, same doctor.”

Sheikh Ibrahim Mogra of Leicester said that the problem with referring to reform in Islam was that it brought up associations to do with Christian history. He said: “For me it is not so much about reformation of Islam. It is really about the renewal of Islam to reform Muslims.”
 

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/faith/article2529665.ece