Will Islam Ever Reform?

It is said, “change is the only constant of life.” This constant of life is a universal process that encompasses all things. Change presents two alternatives: either successful adaptation or extinction. Adaptation is akin to the performance of a complicated dance that environmental forces and conditions choreograph and all species aim to keep up. Thousands and thousands of species have failed to keep in step with the ever-changing requirements and have become extinct. We, humans, some of us, have “danced” successfully enough, thus far, to reach our present state. Yet the species’ past success is no guarantee of continued success. What makes matters even more daunting is the rapid rate that conditions are changing and the ever increasing complexity of these changes.

The confluence of ever accelerating changes in the environment, demography, economics, weaponry and much more are presently severely testing humanity’s ability and willingness to adjust. Sadly, many of us are still clinging to outmoded ways of thinking and obsolete practices. Some of us even, with nostalgia, wish for the long-ago times. No amount of wishing, however, can set the clock back. There is no such a thing as a time machine that can take us back to the idealized past. Even if we could go back, we would most likely find ourselves face to face with challenges and problems that were equally daunting at our point of development. The adaptability and change that are required of a five-year-old child are no less taxing, given his capabilities at his stage of development, than those that face an adult. Hence it is a delusion to wish for the “good old days.” The “good old days” had their own good old problems. All we can do, realistically, is to go forward, employing our very best collective effort.

Throughout history, adaptability has been central to the survival of all species. In the case of humanity, adaptability has indeed been paramount. In the face of major and minor changes, many human groups, the world over and over the millennia, time and again, modified their thinking and practices to successfully meet new challenges and opportunities. The willingness to change, however, has not been uniformly practiced through the ages by all members of our species. Those human groups that failed to respond adaptively were swept away by the inevitable force of changing conditions.

Based upon the above premise, can we say that Islam will eventually adapt to our century and reform itself?

Realistically, many people have tried it and failed. The idea of reforming Islam is not entirely new. Islam cannot be reformed the way Christianity was. For one, Islam claims that it is the perfect eternal faith for mankind. Divisions have happened and will continue to occur in Islam.  Yet reformation has not happened in nearly 1,400 years and is not going to happen. In the mind of millions of Muslims, Islam is carved in granite, just the way it is.  No change. Allah’s book is sealed.

Thus, Islam is not reformable for the following primary reasons:

* At the heart of the problem is the Qur’an, Islam’s sacred book, considered as literally perfect and the immutable words of Allah.

* Islam is a perfect religion.

How can fallible, limited humans possibly reform or improve the handiwork of the all-knowing, all-wise Author of the Universe?

Islam is a brutal, tribal warrior ideology that glorifies jihad and martyrdom. The Quran is replete with acts of murder, terrorism, and genocide. Can it ever correct itself?

Let us look at some explicit provisions of the Quran:

* Islam is misogynist. Men are superior to women. Women are to obey men and are to be beaten when they disobey or misbehave.

* Islam is racist. The Quran stipulates that the Arabs are superior to all others, and it clearly condones slavery. It explicitly stipulates discriminatory laws for slaves.

* Islam denounces other belief systems and marginally recognizes the validity of only two religions: Judaism and Christianity.

* Islam is violent. It not only condones jihad; it recommends it and promises great reward for the jihadist.

Nearly a billion and a half of the human species — a species supposedly endowed with the greatest of intelligence — swallows Islam and even dispenses it to others by any and all means possible. It is one of those great mysteries of life that defies all logic!

Sadly enough, instead of Muslims marching out of the suffocating swamps of submission to the meadow of liberty, Allah’s faithful aim to drag the rest of humanity into the deadly Islamic quagmire. However, the 21st century world is not willing to surrender to the clearly failed and failing Islamic experiment, simply because of the claim that it is the one and only true religion of Allah.

The profession of a clergy is to attract a select segment of men, men who have already significantly bought into the Islamic charter and its methods. As these men undergo formal indoctrination, a culling process takes place. Hundreds of thousands of these men, for a variety of reasons, do not advance very far. A great number of Muslims function in lower positions for the rest of their lives. They are the drones, so to speak. They loyally keep working the rank-and-file Muslim believers in villages and towns, making them toe the line and pay their tributes and cash to their parasitic handlers, who continue their highly successful smoke and mirror charade. A significant number may leave the ordination altogether, for a variety of reasons, and begin earning their living like the rest of the people.

In short, those who claim that they want to reform Islam want to transform it by stripping it of a great many provisions that are anathema to civilized humanity. These people are trying to make a new religion out of the old, with none of the divine authority that was supposedly bestowed upon Muhammad to form and launch his religion.