Muslims against shariah?
This group has now become a huge blog sensation (Muslims Against Sharia has compiled a long list proving it). Most of the reaction is predictable:
- Ultra-conservative
scumbagsidiots who hate Islam say Islam cannot be reformed and even “anti-Shariah Muslims” cannot be trusted. - Mainstream Muslims say Islam cannot be reformed and the site authors are not Muslim.
- Investigative minds notice some anti-Islam bloggers are on the authors list and therefore determine that the members are not Muslims, but actually a front for conservative groups to take down Islam.
My own reaction is around the third one. I’m an anti-Shariah muslim who is suspicious. (Unlike some critics, I don’t believe shariah = Islam.) I’ve discussed the group elsewhere and even gotten in touch with the group’s president but I’m not really much closer to understanding their position.
My take so far is that I don’t agree with their definition of “Muslim”; I think that by legitimizing inaccurate translations and concepts in the Quran, they will “embolden” anti-Islam activists; I wonder why they consider it preferable to try to edit the Quran rather than simply encourage people to stop believing in it altogether (may be à la “The True Furqan”); I believe it might be more accurate to call their group “Muslims Against the Quran” (because their quarrel is with the source itself) … and so on.
The president has done a not-so-good job at (defensively) defending himself and his org. all over the web. His defense (at Ali Eteraz) of a co-author who has called for Islam to be banned is almost totally nonsensical. I’ve complained before about liberal Muslims teaming up with conservative non-Muslims to advance their causes and it seems that trend will never cease.
I’m still having a hard time following their logic:
- They state: We are Muslims, we believe in the Quran, we are peaceful
- But: The Quran commands Muslims to kill all other people
- Therefore: Many parts of the Quran are false or corrupted
- Yet, inexplicably: “Islam is peace; Islam is love; Islam is light.”
Meh.
I’m a liberal Muslim who likes to team up with trads and conservatives in defence of Islam, although the problem is that - from time to time - they like to remind me how wicked my views are! It gets me quite annoyed, but only for so long. In the end, insha Allah, conservative and traditional Muslims will realise that liberals are not about the splinter the ummah into a billion individuals doing their own tafsir, and realise there are more ways to God than those advocated by Hamzu Yusuf.
Very nicely said, Yakoub. Thanks for the comment.
I believe Islam HAS some rules, but yeah, the schools of law have little to offer me. Groups like MAS are a different story though, for many reasons, mainly that they’re transparently a neocon front. It’s like Jews for Jesus, which is not and has never been Jewish, or the African American Republican Leadership Council, which is almost entirely white. I prefer honest, open Muslim-haters.
OMG is October and you’re not dead
Salaam dear Leena,
I wasn’t even aware of this group so thanks for the head’s up.
Warmly,
Baraka