Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies

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Background

On September 11 th 2001, the world saw the bitter harvest of a militant narrow and ossified interpretation of Islam. The young perpetrators who hijacked four American airliners and crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, were products of a combination of both autocratic rule in the Arab Muslim World and a narrow bigoted interpretation of Islam. The fanatical militant interpretation of Islam embraced by followers of bin Ladin as well as the narrow rigid interpretation of traditional establishment Islam are both probably more fatal to Muslims than to non-Muslims. If such an interpretation has claimed the lives of 3000 Americans in the World Trade Center, that very same interpretation has also claimed the lives of 200 000 Algerians in the last ten years, and the lives of more than a million Southern Sudanese in the last twenty years. More culturally and politically fatal is how 1.3 billion Muslims are being held hostages by alternating fear of autocracy and theocracy. This is why the enlightened version of Reformative Islam must be presented to both Muslims and non-Muslims if the World is to avert further calamities such as the 9/11 tragedy, and avert religious violence within Muslim societies (e.g. Algeria ), or between non-Muslims and Muslims (e.g. Sudan ).

Moreover, one of the unfortunate consequences of 9/11 has been the negative perception of Islam itself in the West. Of equal concern is the future of some thirty million Muslims living in Western Europe, North America, and Australia , the vast majority of whom are naturalized citizens of these respective democracies. Among their civil rights is to learn the language, culture, and religion of their forefathers. But the question remains: which version of Islam are they to learn? If it is the bin Laden variety they would be permanent time bombs; and if it is the ossified version they will be permanently condemned to an underclass, or worse, to the status of outcasts. Only moderate Islam gives promise of a healthy integration of these millions of Muslims in their respective pluralistic Western societies.

Tasks

In light of the above we foresee undertaking a project that would enhance the dissemination of enlightened Islamic teachings, based on a reformed interpretation of Islam. The following are the activities proposed by the Center for such a program on Islamic Reformation:

• The writing, publishing and marketing of a select number of Islamic Reformation books;
• Of these a limited number will be chosen for translation to a few Western languages; and
• Debating the themes of Reformative Islam in the public media.

The following subsection3 to 5elaborate on the above three tasks and show our estimated preliminary budget for each.

Arabic Editions of Islamic Reformation Books

The first step in the program is inviting 15 enlightened Islamic scholars, each to write in Arabic a monograph (120-150 pages) to be published in a popular edition that would be made available to a wide circle of Muslims at subsidized affordable prices.

Each of these books is supposed to provide an enlightened modern interpretation of the nature and meaning of the basic values of the Islamic message, from the author's point of view, and how it translates into Islamic public law in our contemporary world.

The arguments in support of these interpretations will be based on a return to the (teachings) text of the Qur'an itself and the definitely verified parts of the Sunna, both re-read in the light of the realities of this age, and its widely accepted international ethos, rather than the current traditional interpretations of medieval Islamic scholars. Thus, in essence, these books are intended to present a genuine radical reformation, a comprehensive reformulation dealing with the political structure, the social order, criminal justice, and basic human rights.

Although numerous previous attempts at such a reformation have been made yet unfortunately most of the books that claimed to present an Islamic perspective on human rights suffer from serious defects, most predominantly from methodological confusion and weakness. Authors of such books appear torn between a desire to protect and perpetuate principles that they associate with their own tradition in many respects a pre-modern one and anxieties lest that tradition be assessed as backward and deficient if Islam is not shown to possess the kind of advanced principles of human rights and freedoms that are now embodied in International Conventions. Thus traditional proponents of Islamic human rights engage in strained attempts to blur distinction between the Islamic Shari'a of medieval scholars and the tenets of the International Conventions on Human Rights.

The attempt at such an Islamic Reformation?which the books we propose to publish seek to achieve?is necessarily fraught with sensitivities and problems, since it deals not simply with Islam as a religion but also with what has developed over the past centuries into the present formulation of Islamic law (Shari'a). Traditional conservative Muslims, and in particular traditional religious Islamic institutions of all shades have strenuously resisted any such reformation. Nevertheless, the sociopolitical and moral issues of vital concern to Muslims and non-Muslims alike must be confronted and addressed squarely , in particular issues relating to:

• The use of violence whether physical or psychological, and the concept of jihad ;
• Basic human rights , in particular the rights of women and non-Muslim minorities in a predominantly Muslim society;
• Liberal democratic governance , and basic socio-political freedoms as enunciated in international conventions; Free speech, in its broad sense, including the freedom to proselytize and to convert from Islam.

Translation of Selected Basic Books from the Works of Reformative Islam

Ten of the Arabic popular editions (item 3) will be selected for translation into English for future widespread dissemination in Western societies, especially where sizable Muslim communities reside, in order to provide essential knowledge that would foster improved understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims. This is to be done on an experimental basis initially. If testing proves positive then mass editions may be produced on demand. Part of the experimentation would include the use of the internet.

Although the intended audience/readers of this series of books is the world at large, it should prove to be of exceptional importance to the following:

• Muslims living within the Arab World , especially those countries with large or significant non-Muslim minorities.
• The peoples of the Western democracies (including the liberal democracies of Asia and Latin America) who are largely ignorant of Islam and its values and are misled and confused by militant Islamic political groups who have hijacked the Islamic faith, or by the ossified Islamic teachings of traditional Sheikhs and scholars who offered medieval interpretations of Islam which strongly conflict in some major aspects with moral principles over which there is an overwhelming international consensus.

Debating Reformative Islam

An essential part of this project is the effort to enhance it through the initiation of a wide debate both within and outside the Muslim world. It is proposed that each major theme covered in the Arabic editions, or the translated works, should be the subject of media debate, to which proponents and critics will be invited. Through such debates in the media and other public forums the long-imposed siege on Reformative Islam will be broken. Moreover, a selected number of like-minded Western centers and universities are to be engaged in the project and perhaps invited as partners. ICDS has already established relations with such like-minded institutions [e.g., The London-based, Minority Rights Group International; the Leidan based International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM); the Harvard-based Institute of Middle Eastern Studies; and the Washington-based, Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy].