Islamic reformism from within

Muhamad Ali, Jakarta

The New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof in his recent article, Islamic Reformism: Martyrs, Virgins and Grapes (Aug. 4), provides criticism of religious fundamentalism -- Christian, Jewish, but specifically Muslim fundamentalism -- and hoped that Islamic reformism could prevent the creation of future fundamentalists and therefore should be path taken by the Muslim world. But he does not say how Islamic reformism can be undertaken.

The article coincided with the Indonesian government's plan to host an Asia-Pacific interfaith dialogue in October to discuss terrorism and its roots. Muhammad Syafi'i Ma'arif, who chairs the country's second largest Islamic movement, Muhammadiyah, said the forum, which will be jointly funded by Indonesia and Australia, was expected to be attended by representatives from 15 countries, with hard-line Muslim groups also being invited to take part in the dialogue.

The dialogue was aimed at scotching the notion that Islam is synonymous with terrorism. It would also focus on how to empower moderate Muslim elements and analyze terrorism from a Muslim standpoint. The big question is then: Why does Islam need dialogical reformism and how should this be brought about?

It is noteworthy that Muslims have long initiated reform through the use of ijtihad (independent thinking), challenging blind letter-for-letter compliance (taqlid). Muslims have developed their own ways of coming to terms with changing times and places.

They have created Islamic methodology in dealing with religious texts, including the science of the hadith (the Prophet's "traditions"), science of the Qur'an, science of law and jurisprudence (ushul fiqh), and so forth. Muslim contact with Greek philosophical traditions enabled further dialogues and rethinking of Islamic tradition. Consequently, Muslim philosophers, sufis, theologians, historians, sociologists and scientists flourished during the time the West was in darkness in the Middle Ages.

But now, in this modern era, the Muslim condition is generally the reverse. Most Muslims are backward, poor and underdeveloped, and the West has become politically, militarily, scientifically, economically and culturally dominant. The ideas of democracy, liberal government, human rights, pluralism, tolerance are commonly viewed as Western, rather than Muslim traditions.

Consequently, modern Muslim history is to be measured by Western standards. Modernization in the Muslim world is assessed through Western categorization: whether or not Muslim states and societies are close to the modernization taking place in Europe or the United States.

Muslims are mostly in Asia, Africa and the Middle East -- and are only minorities in Western Europe and the U.S. Thus, many Muslims feel they have to catch up with Western modernity. Some Muslim groups become frustrated and involved in radicalism.

Internal crisis and external hegemony are some of the reasons why some Muslims need reformism. Muslims should be willing to adopt and adapt to external ideas and experiences.

Islam is said by its adherents to be the faith of both reason and revelation. For most believers, Islam is "rational", although it includes transcendental and supra-rational beliefs. Muslims should embrace science and technology.

Thus, Islamic reform should mean returning to the basic teachings of Islam, that is, the rational Islam. Here Muslims should reform themselves because their religion demands them to do so. Reform should also be begun from within. Islamic reformism should be both authentic and modern.

How can Muslims undertake reforms? Some Muslims ask whether the discourse of the Islamic liberals (i.e. Islamic reformism) has not been a form of "false consciousness", an abject submission to the hegemonic discourse of the dominant secular Western capitalist and imperialist societies, and oriental Orientalism, or whether it was and is practical, rational, emancipatory and internally well-founded. There are various answers to this, but, it can be argued, Islam and modernity are not incompatible.

For liberal, Western and locally trained Muslims, like Nurcholish Madjid and the younger generation, reformism, or neo- modernism, should mean rationalization of what should be rational in Islamic teachings. Islam is essentially a modern, rational religion.

Yet, rationalization need not mean "Westernization", because the latter would mean deracination from some of Islam's cultural roots. Not all Western cultures are relevant to Muslims, according to this viewpoint.

For other thinkers, Islamic reformism should learn the lesson of Christian Reformism -- Protestantism. Michaelle Browers and Charles Kurzman in their edited book, An Islamic Reformism (2004), attempt to observe how different Muslims think of their tradition and seek its reform in different ways.

Hashem Aghajari in Iran in June 2002, for example, argued that like medieval Christianity, Islam in the Islamic Republic of Iran has become bureaucratized and hierarchical and it therefore ought to embark on a "project of Islamic Protestantism" as a rational, scientific, humanistic Islam. Some further argue that Muslims should be allowed to undertake their own reformation, which would result in the reorientation and rationalization of religious values and beliefs of Muslims.

In fact, Hashem was not the first to endorse reformism. Muhammad Abduh (Egypt, d.1905) has been called "the reformer of Islam". Muhammad Rashid Rida (Egypt, d.1935) felt the need to combine "religious renewal and earthly renewal, the same way Europe has done with religious reformism and modernism." Tariq Ramadan (born 1962), the grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan Al-Banna (d.1949), was labeled the "Martin Luther of Islam."

Observing this phenomenon, the sociologist Jose Casanova contended that this is all in the very recent past: "if there is anything on which most observers and analysts of contemporary Islam agree, it is that the Islamic tradition in the very recent past has undergone an unprecedented process of pluralization and fragmentation of religious authority, comparable to that initiated by the Protestant Reformism."

How then to promote Islamic Reformism within the contemporary context of Muslim diversity and modernity? Certainly Muslims are different in their religious backgrounds as regards education, experience and orientation. Religious monopolies are increasingly being broken by globalization and new media.

Thus, Islamic Reformism can take place in different ways in different groups, but they cannot ignore mass communications and mass education. Since there is no single way of reforming one's own religion, Muslims should initiate more dialogs and increase collaboration among themselves, and between themselves and others, including Europeans and Americans. Historically, Muslims and the so-called West have influenced each other and therefore inherent Muslim-Western antagonism is historically untrue.

On the other hand, it is also a utopian idea to think that the terrorists will become tolerant. The trans-local and trans- national terrorists should be dealt with through collaborative security measures. But world citizens, whatever their ideology, can prevent the emergence of future terrorists, partly by understanding and dealing with the root causes of their hatred. Islamic Reformism is therefore not a mere matter of religion, but also a political, intellectual, economic and cultural endeavor.

Islamic Reformism can be best undertaken from within, but this should not mean that external ideas and wider collaboration are not necessary. Within the modern and global context, Muslims do not live in isolation, neither do the Western people.

The writer is a lecturer at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN), Jakarta. He is pursuing a Ph.D in history at the University of Hawaii. He can be reached at muhali74@hotmail.com