Posted by
flagwaver on Wednesday, October 18, 2006 12:30:12 AM
More and more I hear the cry from scholars, experts, and media personalities that Islam needs to go through a modern day reform movement. They say that there needs to be an Islamic Martin Luther nailing a new 95 theses to a mosque door somewhere in the Middle East.
Folks, I hate to be the one to tell you this...but that ain't gonna happen!
There is a fundamental difference in the Protestant Reformation, and any proposed Islamic counterpart. The difference is that in the case of Martin Luther, he did not argue for the Church to turn away from its Scripture, he was urging a return to them. He posited that the Catholic church had turned away from the Scripture by giving extra-Biblical authority to the pope to interpret Scripture, to have political authority, and in the granting of special spiritual authority to priests.
The Reformation led by Luther did not seek to overturn the words of Scripture itself, only to bring the catholic church into agreement with the Word of God.
Anything like this in the Islamic religion, however, would have to be a direct attack on the moslem faith itself. The Koran, which the moslems believe are the literal words of allah, would have to be directly contradicted in order to bring about any reformation. The Koran instructs the moslem not to become friends with the Jews or the Christians, but to regard them as enemies; likewise, the Koran tells the moslem that it is his duty to lie in wait for, and to kill the unbelievers. How could any moslem, no matter how moderate, speak out against the literal word of allah?
So to all those calling for an Islamic Luther to rise up, or for the religion to be reformed...you can forget that! You would have better luck convincing a 3 year old to disavow Santa Claus! The moslems are too wedded to the Koran, and are too devout to tear down the beliefs of centuries in order to fit into the modern world.
There can be, and never will be, any hope for an Islamic Reformation.