the 2012 rome conference report

8/10/2019 The 2012 Rome Conference Report

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The Rome ColloquiumAmplifying Muslim Voices for Reason & Reform

December 7-8, 2012

Report on Proceedings

Part I

Pontifical University of Santa Croce

Piazza di SantApollinare, 49

00186 Rome, Italy


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The 2012 Rome Colloquium 2

Contents

Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 3

The structure of the conference ............................................................................................................. 8

List of papers discussed at the conference ....................................................................................... 10

Summaries of papers and discussions on them.................................................................................... 11

Shaker al-NabulsiMuslim reform: obstacles and opportunities ................................................... 11

Abd al-Khaliq HusseinThe western impassethe awareness deficit ........................................... 14

Abd al-Hamid al-AnsariDiagnosing the Arab-Muslim mentality as a precursor to reform ........... 15

Kamil al-NajjarThe reform value of a critical reading of Islam and early Islamic history .............. 17

Raja Ben SlamaWomens rights as a lever for reform.................................................................. 18

Hashem SalehTowards an Arab-Islamic Enlightenment ............................................................... 21

Lafif LakhdarPromoting deep reform through comparative religion ........................................... 24

Lafif Lakhdar - Detailed response to the Almuslih table of questions .......................................... 25

Recommendations ................................................................................................................................ 34

Excursus: A sister-site under theAlmuslihaegis focused on Orientalist scholarship ....................... 35

Excursus: An analysis of Hashim Salehs paper My Struggle for Arab-Islamic Enlightenment......... 37

Preliminary conclusions ........................................................................................................................ 41

Annex ISubmitted Papers .................................................................................................................. 43

Lafif LakhdarThe Reform of Islam is both Necessary and Possible ............................................... 43

Kamil al-NajjarThe Reform Value of a Critical Reading of Islam and Early Islamic History ........... 50

Dr. Abdulkhaliq Hussein - The western impassethe awareness deficit ........................................ 54

Dr. Abd al-Hamid al-Ansari - Diagnosing the Arab Muslim Mentality as a Precursor to Reform ..... 60

Mohammed Sanduk- Reform: a discourse of intellectuals or a rehabilitation? .............................. 63

Hashem Saleh - My struggle for Arab-Islamic Enlightenment .......................................................... 68

Annex IIPressArticles on the Rome Conference................................................................................ 84

Abd al-Hamid al-Ansari ................................................................................................................. 84

Hashem Saleh ................................................................................................................................ 88

Yusuf Aba al-Khayl ......................................................................................................................... 92

Annex III - Participants at the conference ............................................................................................ 95

Contributing participants unable to attend the conference ............................................................. 97

Annex IV - Feedback from the participants .......................................................................................... 99


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Overview

The question is a cultural one, and the battle is, in the first degree,intellectual. If we do not win the intellectual battle for enlightenmentagainst the fundamentalists, we will not at any day win the politicalbattle. (Hashem Saleh)

The Rome Colloquiumwhich took as its theme Amplifying Muslim Voices for Reason & Reform, washeld at the Pontificia Universit della Santa Croce in central Rome on December 7-8 2012. The aimwas to foster discourse between Islam and the West by bringing together leading Western

intellectuals with some of the foremost reform-minded thinkers in the Arab Muslim world. The

conference set itself the following aims:

to provide a forum for discussion for identifying the constituents and the modalities of reform, and to

decide on a programme of media dissemination

to provide a publication underlining the argumentation and methodology of Islamic intellectual

reform

to provide an educational reference work for non-Arabs or those not hailing from a Muslim cultural

background - as to the nature of the debate and the challenges facing it.

to construct a coherent, consistent program intended for implementation

Specifically, the conference aims to provide non-Muslims westerners with important empirical

guidance on how to promote reform in the Muslim Middle East in such a way that it does not

hamperthe cause of progressive reform by appearing to lend legitimacy to the forces of reaction.

Reform is a profoundly difficult challenge, not only for those who are themselves the voices of

reform, but even moreso for those in the West who do not have linguistic or cultural fluency in the

ideas at stake. The approach was therefore somewhat experimental, since in common with the

Almuslih websites bilingual format, the conference itself was conducted in Arabic with livetranslations made available to those attending without facility in the Arabic language, but who

nevertheless wished to follow the debates and contribute to the discussions.

Due to the sensitivity of the issues under discussion and the profile of the speakers most of whom

have been the object of physical threats the conference took the form of a closed meeting for the

purpose of co-ordinating future strategies for the dissemination of reform.

Participating in the colloquium were the following progressive intellectuals from the Arab world:

Dr. Shaker Al-Nabulsi (Jordan, USA)

Lafif Lakhdar (France)

Prof. Abd al-Hamid al Ansari (Egypt/Saudi Arabia)

Dr. Hashem Saleh (Morocco)

Dr. Raja Ben Slama (Tunisia)

Dr. Abdulkhaliq Hussein (Iraq, UK)

Dr. Kamil al-Najjar (Sudan, UK)

In attendance from the western side were:

Tony Assaf (Thomas More College)

Katherine C. Gorka (The Westminster Institute, USA)

Dr. Sebastyen L. Gorka (National Defense University, USA)


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Kishore Jayabalan (The Acton Institute)

Fr. Wafik Nasry (Loyola Marymount University)

Robert R. Reilly (American Foreign Policy Institute)

Stephen Ulph (Almuslih)

The colloquium was convened by Stephen Ulph, Director of The Reform Projectunder the aegis ofthe Almuslih website and organised in co-operation with The Westminster Institute under thedirection of Katherine Gorka with the participation of Thomas More College.

The following Report on Proceedings Part I summarises all the elements that made up theconference, both practical and intellectual

1. At the time of writing the texts of the papers have yet to

be received in totofor editing and publishing in the dedicated monograph, but the present Reportincludes all the recommendations and results of the dialogue that took place at Rome.

One of the speakers, Hashem Saleh, describing his invitation to the Rome conference in an article

dated December 4thfor the leading Arab newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat, underlined the importance of

the intellectual restructuringhighlighted by the Rome conferencethat must precede meaningfulreform on the ground. This restructuring is

where the basic task of the conference and those attending it lies. For a true, future, political Spring

must first be preceded by an intellectual enlightenment! We cannot forge an Arab future with the

mentality of bygone eras. This is where the great contradiction inherent in the current Spring

resides. But given that this mentality is still predominant and enjoys a historical legitimacy and a

massive public support, we will have to cross swords with it in one form or another. In other words,

we have to criticise it and pull it apart.

He later went on to explain that:

The question therefore is a cultural one, and the battle is, in the first degree, intellectual. If we do not

win the intellectual battle for enlightenment against the fundamentalists, we will not at any day winthe political battle. And for this very reason the Arab Spring will only turn into a fundamentalist

Autumn.

However, this palpable sense of renewed urgency and energy in the writings of progressive

reformers comes up against a significant hurdle. This obstacle is one of a lack of an effective

institutionalisation of their response. For any active agenda for reform, in place of an assumption of

a natural evolutionary process towards enlightenment, is still in need of coordination and organized

support. The reformers remain an under-funded minority who are struggling to gain a foothold with

their audiences. But all that is needed is focus, for as Lafif Lakhdar laments in his paper for the Rome

conference,

There is no institution that unites us or shared programme that defines the task and the priorities ...the obstacles are many: first among which the absence of an institution tasked with overseeing the

implementation of the reform programme and financing it. All we have left are individual initiatives

that are necessarily disorganised. In the absence of this institution the prevailing understanding of

reform is fragmentary, and does not comprehend all the aspects of reform.

A commentator on Lafif Lakhdars paper put it thus:

I would like to make this observation: that we (that is, those who support the project of reform) need

to stand together and co-operate with each other more. For instance, why do we not found a

commitee comprising those who are concerned with enlightenment thought? Why is there no

participation in shared intellectual projects, for example? It is exasperating to see antediluvian

1The Report on Proceedings Part IIcontains the Arabic texts of the participants papers and the articles on the Rome Conference featured

in the Arab press.


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thinkers co-operating and standing together while, not long ago, two great scholars of enlightenment

thought Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd and Mohamed Arkoun have now passed away. The geographic

distance between them Holland and Paris was not great, but did they ever meet? I imagine that

that never happened. I give this example to show the psychological gaps separating the bearers of this

project. In my view it is high time for some co-operative work and effort, not to say collective work

and effort.2

The role of Almuslih in the Rome Conference

Progressive thinkers also lament the confusion in the West as to how to face down the challenge of

Islamists in their midst. Part of the enthusiasm for the participants response to the conference is the

perception ofAlmuslihas being

in the vanguard among non-Muslims in the understanding of the task that lies before reformers,

which, with its translation of their work into English introduces their mission to everyone, a mission

which Erdoan summarised as the need for Islams conciliation with freedom, secularism, and

democracy the need to integrate Muslims into the world they are living in. As opposed to some

Orientalists of the likes of Olivier Roy who think that the Muslim far right will be participants in the

reform of Islam.3

In this context the example of the Almuslihwebsite is being considered by these reformers as animportant opportunity and model, one that is playing a paradigmatic role in this process. Where

once printed books could be confiscated in Arab countries, now:

the projects of reformists are read in every Arab country and across five continents and, thanks to the

Almuslih websites translation of them into English they now reach the elite of Islamic lands andIslamologist specialists all over the world, and interested sectors of the public.

4

The concept of a western conference on reform in the Islamic world might have generated negative

responses, but for the fact that the participants were familiar with the ethos of theAlmuslihwebsite.This fed into the perception of the conference as a positive new change of approach from the

perception of the Middle East as lost to Islamist totalitarianism. Hashem Saleh in his article for al-Sharq al-Awsat speculated that

perhaps one of the aims of the conference is to pull apart this caricature concerning the Arabs and

Muslims. We shall do this in front of western intellectuals who are participating. The discussion will

take the form of a dialogue of cultures, not a clash of cultures. We are fed up with this sterile,

erroneous type of discussion. The entire history of humanity is one of interaction and exchange

between different cultures. In particular between European culture and Arab-Islamic culture.

He went on to emphasise that:

The traditional, fundamentalist intellectual no doubt exists, and has enjoyed his respect and

legitimacy over history, but the enlightened, reformist intellectual also exists! Now the struggle over

the Arab lands is one between two extremes, a struggle which to a great extent will decide the fate of

the Arabs, or what has come to be known as the Arab Spring.

and he finally promised the readers to

bring back to you as soon as I return a detailed report on the discussion and the thinking that took

place there.5

2Yahya Belhasan, commenting on theAl-Awanwebsite, December 16, 2012.

3See below: L. Lakhdar, Detailed Response to the Almuslih Table of Questions.

4

Ibid.5For the full text of this article see Annex II:Articles on the Rome Conference.


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Abd al-Hamid al-Ansari also expressed his confidence in the bona fidesof the conference in an articlepublished for the Arab newspapers al-Jarida, al-Ayyamand al-Watan,stating that it was

an attempt to draw the ears of Western intellectuals to the voices of Arab reformers with the aim of

dismantling the typical image in the western mindset of Arabs and Muslims as people recalcitrant to

reform ... to bring the voices of Arab reformers to the West, repair a distorted image and

demonstrate the myth of the Clash of Civilisations or the delusions of a western enmity to Islam, soas to block the way to those on either side who call for confrontation.

He noted that its purpose was

To correct the mental image of Arabs and Muslims as people unable to grasp the concepts of

modernity, enlightenment and rationality, and whose Islam is somehow recalcitrant to reform ... and

allay the suspicions of Westerners that the Arab arena is dominated by extremists, Salafists and the

Muslim Brotherhood [and] convey the message of Arab intellectuals struggling for modernity and

enlightenment in the field, and underline that it is these who are the ones deserving of support if the

West wants to witness an Arab reform.

The language of the colloquium

A significant and experimental feature of the conference, which all participants commented upon,

was the choice of language for the discussions. Abd al-Hamid al-Ansari wrote, in an article carried in

a number of Arab newspapers, that

it is a matter of pride that the organisers insisted that the language of the discussion should be

Arabic.6

while Hashem Saleh in his article for al-Sharq al-Awsat article enthusiastically commented on

one lastbut very important - note: all the papers and discussions will be delivered in Arabic, not the

usual English we must use in conferences around the world! Those who do not know our language

will have translators ready for them. Isnt this something marvellous, especially since it is taking place

in the heart of Rome?

It is clear that the language issue served as a tangible demonstration of good will, respect and

serious intent, and contributed to securing the calibre of participants that attended. In addition, for

all its political influence, the Anglo-Saxon world in general is relatively isolated from the reality of the

debate, which is largely Franco-Arabic in language. It is therefore worth taking these things into

account for future discussions of this type.

The bona fides of the colloquium

The good will issue is of considerable importance, and much attention was paid, during negotiations

with the potential participants, to outlining the constructive purposes of the conference. Thesensitivity of the issue of the reform of Islamic discourse has in the past stirred up negative feeling.

For instance, the Egyptian Islamist Fahmy Howeidi voiced open objections to a meeting convened in

2003 in Paris7, in which the theme of the renewal of Islamic discourse was discussed , arguing that

such a venue had suspicious motives and that indeed Paris as a venue appeared to be something

akin to a joke:

But the joke faded when I noticed that The European Union was financing the meeting, and that the

convening of the meeting was organised by an Egyptian organisation funded from abroad in co-

operation with two European organisations. This immediately made me wonder: what have these

6

For the full text of this article see Annex II:Articles on the Rome Conference.7Fahmy Howeidi, (Point of Order),Al-Ahram,30 September 2003.


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people got to do with the issue? Since when have they been zealous for Islam and intent upon

renewing its discourse? Could this meeting have taken place anywhere other than on a European

background that answered to the priorities of an American / European agenda?

His opinions resonated well with his readers, but there were some objections to this view. Salah al-

Din al-Jurshi, writing from Bahrayn argued that objections on the geographical location of the

conference were absurd, as was the constant appeal to conspiracy. 8He argued that a European

interest was not out of place, for

Ever since al-Qaeda lifted the lid, it has no longer been possible to ask world decision-makers to

remain neutral on issues that affected them directly, which interacted in their very capital cities and

caused cracks in their institutions. Today the fate of Islam is no longer something which concerns

Muslims or clerics alone. The issue has security, cultural, political and strategic implications.

It is for this reason that almost every western state is currently consulting with all Islamic capitals on

how to reshape the relationship between Islam, Islamic expatriate communities and the centres of

decision-making. This does not justify each and every form of intervention, it is just that we should

understand that the ground on which we have been standing up to now has entirely changed.

Howeidi wrote off the Paris Declarationthat resulted from the meeting as

bearing nothing of any value in relation to the subject. It is designed in the first place to please those

who financed and hosted the conference. What concerns us is its deception, in that it is part of a

creeping encroachment upon Islam and its role in society. It represents an alliance between fanatical

secularists and former Communists ... and in one degree or another coincides with the aims and

interests of a West that considers Islam to be an enemy that must be derailed and excluded ...

Salah al-Din al-Jurshi took issue with Howeidis dismissal of Islamic extremism as something that

arose from the other side, represented by that hidden alliance which reaches us from time to time

and which does not get the attention it deserves,

and instead provided a more accurate diagnosis of the phenomenon, one which equally provides a

useful background to the Rome conference:

Exaggerated attempts to set down preconditions for the conducting of a dialogue in the end risk

leading to excommunication and takfr. Many issues of dispute presently posed require a deep and

free discussion, at least so that these issues can be clarified. This is because many of them in their

turn are posed within the circle of Islamic thought, despite the obstinacy of some or their refusal to

recognise this. The point I am making here is to extract the relationships between Islamists and

secularists from its historical crisis, whenever efforts are made to go beyond this otherwise the

clashes will be renewed and Sisyphuss rock will roll back down to the foot of the mountain.

The advantage, of course, with the Rome Conference, and which all participants commented upon,

was its ideological, political and financial independence. Funding for the Rome Conference was from

non-government, independent sources, including independent grant funding institutions and from

contributions of philanthropic individuals unattached to any agendas. As the above comments

demonstrate, association with a government carries with it the kiss of death risk for r eformers

anxious to shake off accusations of foreign collaboration, in addition to such an association being

hostage to political change. Significantly, the Almuslih conference is also independent of academicfunding, which secures it an immunity from undue doctrinal or ideological influence.

8Salh al-Dn al-Jursh, - (A Response to Fahmy Howeidis article: The

Paris Meeting was a Step Forward, not a Conspiracy against Islam),Al-Wasat(Bahrayn), October 16 2003.


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The structure of the conference

Based on the experience of theAlmuslihwebsite in learning from, and promoting, progressive voicesin the Arab world, the conferenceAmplifying Muslim Voices for Reason & Reform aimed to cover thefollowing broad areas:

Interpreting the Quranic textbreaking outside thedogmatic enclosure of theofficial closedcorpus (to use Mohamed Arkouns terms)

Widening the model:a look at the history of Islamic societies, science and progress

Countering the ideologization of Islam: exploration through comparison

Factors conducive to the indigenization of modernity in Islam

The task of reform is an extremely wide one, and we clearly only had time to focus on what may be

regarded as some fundamental starting points, the core preliminaries that have to be addressed

before anything else. In general terms these are problems ofperceptionand problems of mindset.

Under the problems of perception it was considered useful for the conference first to outline theprincipal elements of the social environment that impede reform:

The historical legacy in the Arab Middle East of autocracy and the relationship of the

religious establishment to autocratic currents

The incapacity of the western mindset to grasp the nature of the danger posed by Islamism.

Among the intellectual problems of the current Muslim mindsetare:

The current state of the Muslim mentality that is resistant to development

Elements inherent to Islam as a religion and the text of the Qurn that are prohibitive to

reform.

In terms of potential solutions and pointers to a reform programme, the conference then focused on

the following:

An evaluation of the position on women as barometer and lever for reform

The process of enlightenment and emancipation

An exploration of the potential of comparative religion studies as a lever for reform.

Our seven talks therefore reflected these themes in that order.

............

The conference in Rome was projected to bring together some of the leading voices of Islamic

reform to demonstrate how this reform process is unfolding in some detail, and the new challenges

that the cause of reform is facing in the light of recent political developments.

In addition, and very importantly, this gathering of reform-minded Arab-Muslim intellectuals was to

provide the non-Muslim participants with a rare opportunity to listen and learn, and compare notes

with their own historical experience of reform. In particular it was designed to provide some

answers to the following questions:

How do Muslim reformers envisage the task facing them, in releasing Islamic thought from

the grip of uncreative traditionalism and textual literalism?

What problems of public perception do these reformers face?

What are the primary obstacles confronting them?


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How is the reform message best disseminated?

Do westerners / non-Muslims have a broadly correct understanding the nature of the tasks

facing Muslim reformers?

Is there agreement on the nature of the problems faced? And if so, how far can the non-

Muslim world contribute to the cause of reform in the Muslim world?

What would Muslim reformers ideally require in the form of support?

How can this support best materialise?

In all, the approach taken by the conference was considered to be a useful and productive

opportunity for like-minded reformist thinkers and sympathetic observers to meet up and provide a

rare example of a productive exchange of ideas on what is potentially a divisive area. (See below:

Feedback from the participants, p.99)


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List of papers discussed at the conference

Friday, December 7th

Muslim reform: obstacles and opportunities- Shaker al-Nabulsi

Can the western model of enlightenment and reform be replicated in the Middle East? Is there a comparison to be made between the

movements of Western enlightenment and what is happening today in the Arab arena? What is the relationship between reform and

power?

The western impassethe awareness deficit -Abd al-Khaliq Hussein

How far is the West aware of the dangers to its society posed by political Islam, judging by its absurd handling of Islamist fundmentalists

and the indulgence granted them? If they fail to adopt a decisive position as to how to handle the Islamists, the social consequences will

be serious, particularly for minority Muslim communities.

Diagnosing the Arab-Muslim mentality as a precursor to reform -Abd al-Hamid al-Ansari

Is there an Arab mentality that differs from other mentalities? Is this mentality capable of change? By isolating the salient features of thecurrent discourse, and how far it responds to culturally inherited prototypes we may highlight the means to reform the society and its

conception of religious belief.

The reform value of a critical reading of Islam and early Islamic history- Kamil al-Najjar

Given that Islam, unlike other transcendental faiths, is more of a political ideology than a creed, is Islam as a religion actually reformable?

Any reform that is undertaken will have to radically review the validity of Muslim historiography and effectively reconstruct a new history.

But since Muslimfiqhis built entirely on this erroneous historiography there will be an existential resistance to any form of change. Giventhat there is thus no moral leadership from al-Azhar to undertake any reform, is the exercise a pointless one?

Saturday, December 8th

Womens rights as a lever for reform- Raja Ben Slama

Despite western media perceptions, Tunisia is a successful example of secularism withstanding the onslaught of fundamentalism, and this

is due to irreversible facts on the ground, not least of which the practice, and need, of women going out to work. But there are deficits

that need to be filled the need for a radical reform of education and the use of an understandable language so that the secularisation

process is undertaken from bvelow, not imposed from above.

Towards an Arab-Islamic Enlightenment- Hashem Saleh

The personal experience of the speaker as a test case in how enlightenment and reform works on the Muslim. The importance of opposing

backward elements in the Islamic heritage with progressive elements within that same heritage. The importance of an inter- Arab Marshall

Plan to improve economic conditions as a precursor for intellectual reform, along with an appeal for western powers to support the

teaching of Islam to Muslims under a modern, rational educational system.

Promoting deep reform through comparative religion - Lafif Lakhdar

The importance of the Almuslih initiative in institutionalising the forces of deep reform. Reform has to penetrate to several deep levels:economic, political, linguistic and demographic. Most effective, however, is reform through the study and teaching if Islam through the

modern discipline of comparative religion studies. Such a methodology will remove claims to Islamic uniqueness, strip it of its obscurantist

elements, foster a religious rationalism, develop the Muslim as an individual capable of independent judgement and cleanse Islam from

elements conducive to violence. It may be that the reform of Islam has to pass first through the reform of European Muslims.


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Summaries of papers and discussions on them

Shaker al-NabulsiMuslim reform: obstacles and opportunities

To open the proceedings Dr. al-Nabulsi presented a pessimistic view of the prospects for reform. Heargued that the western model cannot be replicated in the Middle East. In his view, those who think

that what happened in the West can take place in the East are gravely mistaken since there is no

comparison to be made between the movements of Western enlightenment and what is happening

today in the Arab arena. This, he explained, is due to a number of factors:

1) Religions cannot be reformed, one can only reform what is said about religions. That is, wecan only reform minds, not the religion itself. This malleable, changeable element of the

human mind, constitutes 80% of the religion, something which has accumulated over 14 to

15 centuries. In this sense, Islam is a supermarket, we have to pick and choose that which

we find conducive to progress.

2)

Social, cultural and political conditions constitute major obstacles. We must also bear inmind the particular economic, social, and educational levels of the Arab Middle East,particularly the fearful levels of illiteracy. We need to take a look at our own history, which

was dominated by about 5 to 6 centuries of colonialism under the Mamluks and the

Ottomans. We are heirs to a heavy heritage from which we cannot easily escape. We are the

product of a century and a half of Mamluk rule followed directly by four centuries of

oppressive, arbitrary Ottoman rule. In short we are the product of centuries of decline and

oppression, let alone illiteracy, poverty and all the other factors that buttress the popularity

of the fundamentalists and grant them easy victory over us.

3)

Christianity is not Islam: There is no comparison that can be made. All of our history hasresulted in us being quite different, socially, culturally, economically, politically from the

West and that therefore there is a narrow space for any meaningful comparison to bemade.

4) Modernisation is in need of powersince, as the caliph Uthman put it, God listens more tothe Sultan than to the Qurn. It was Atatrk, Bourguiba and Nasser who ushered in

modernity. We lack the political power at the moment to implement our words. Added to

this is the fact that they have the mosques on their side, religious festivals and

fundamentalist satellite channels too, and indeed Arab leaders who themselves have a

predilection for fundamentalist thought. And all this, at a time when we modernists

constitute no more than a small, unsupported handful. How can we reverse the balance of

power in such an environment? We would therefore have to attain power so that the others

should fear us. But where is the sultan of modernity and his drawn sword? and there is no

power base for modernisation

5) The arena is occupied by Islamists who dominate the mosques, the pulpits, the satellitechannels, all other means are at their service, whilst political power also stands by their side

6) Reform requires an industrialised society not a fatalistic, agrarian society, illiteracy iswidespreadand the education systemsimply reflects that which is prevalent.

7)

There is no social or cultural base for reform. The Arab world still consists 80% of peasants, itis an area which has not yet reached the industrial age. Reform is an industrial society not

one that is dependent on fatalism. Our very system of education reflects an agrarian, tribal

society which inculcates the ability to answer questions, but not the ability to pose them.

What we need is a politicalsocial revolution, whereby parents will not agree to send theirchildren to a school unless they are convinced that it understands the value of questioning.


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Comments

Al-Nabulsis diagnosis, taking the form as it did of a framing paper for the conference, naturally

elicited the most comments from the other speakers. These are listed according to the above-listed

points:

Religions cannot be reformedKamil al-Najjar: How can we know what has been saidabout Islam? Quite easily, since Islamicfiqhhasbeen constructed upon the hadith and the texts. We know the texts, so we doknow what is beingsaid. Tyndale translated the Bible from Latin into English and for this he suffered the death penalty.

Jews have changed their old rites, the caliph Umar deleted an entire Qurnic verse so you canchange Islam, you canchange the religion. Islam is a mixture, nothing is frozen, so we dohave theability to make a comparison. Education is not something which is entirely in the hands of the higher

authorities look at how the United States has affected the Saudi curriculum, and these were

outsiders.

Christianity is not Islam.

Hashem Saleh: We should be aware of this experience. It is a battle of the mind before it is a battle ofpolitics and power. Intellectual legality must be taken away from the Islamists. Take the example of

France which saw 3000 intellectual reformers against the deadweight of millions. There is no real

difference between Christianity and Islam in this respect we can make the comparison. For theexperience of the church is illustrative. The Vatican changed to the point that it issued a theological

edict on tolerance no less than a theological revolution. It is our duty therefore to pay attention toreforming the educational curricula.

Modernisation is in need of power

Al-Ansari - Authority would indeed be a fast track to reform, but in a way you can see there are two

theories of how to go about this: 1) penetrate into the depths of the social culture and increase the

role of intellectuals; 2) bet on the fast track however this is unsafe and will not endure. We must bet

on the willingness of people to learn. Change cannot take place from above via authority, but ratherfrom below. Otherwise it merely remains as an adventure whose results cannot be guaranteed, and

cannot be rooted in the ground. Instead it will remain something superficial and easily overturned, as

has happened recently to the legacy of Atatrk and Bourguiba at the hands of the Islamists.

Bourguibism is in crisis and Nasserism is at an end. Reform begins with a social base since

Allah changeth not the condition of a folk until they (first) change that which is in theirhearts.

9

The efforts of enlightened Arabs over the course of 100 years were not and will not be scattered in

vain, on the simple evidence of what is happening now in Egypt. For the Islamists themselves have

begun to talk the language of modernity and democracy when only 20 years ago these things were

simply written off as kufr, as far as they were concerned. There is a public current for modernism;we now do speak of these things even Islamists are having to use liberal terminology. Is this not a

victory for enlightenment and liberal thinking?

Lafif Lakhdar (countering Ansaris comments): Revolution is a phenomenon of the lites not of the

masses. History is made by the most refined group of people. The French Revolution for instance was

carried out by a mere 150 people and Bertrand Russell noted that

intellectual enlightenment was carried out by 100 individuals; if they had been assassinated

this European cultural enlightenment would have been put back centuries!

9 The author is citing Qurn XIII,11.


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What is required is the transformation of reformist thought into legisl ation at the hands of the Kings

of Enlightenment such as Bourguiba who adopted the thought of al-Haddd10

in his work Our Womenin Shara and Society, and which became guaranteed in the 1956 Code of Personal Status

11. The role

of those enlightened people was to submit their ideas and their proposals, while the role of the Kings

is to transform these ideas into laws. This is what happened under Bourguiba who wrote a thesis on

women in sharia and society in which he advocated all rights to women. In the 1957 mayoral

elections women actually voted againstincreasing their personal rights. In these elections Bourguibalost but his response was:

the women voted against me, but I said no, and declared the elections null and void.

In the United States Lincoln liberated blacks, many of whom opposed him. Moses liberated the Jews

and again he was opposed. Ghannouchi in Tunisia launched a counter project against the Personal

Law reforms of Bourguiba. He revoked the adoption laws on the grounds of the Qurn.

(Al-Nabulsis response: when we talk about the French Revolution we must understand thedifferent circumstances: the four centuries previous to the French Revolution were different tothat which the Middle East has ever experienced.)

Sebastyen Gorka: The top-down approach is superficial: if you go to Turkey now you will find that the

legacy of Atatrk is being taken apart. As to the comment that you cannot reform a religion, only

what is said about it, we have to understand that what is important is the attitude to truth and to the

role of reason. We can't command, from the top, that people should respect reason. Voltaire had to

come before the Revolution.

Abdulkhaliq Hussein: In the phase we are going through now extremism is inevitable and is a result of

an intellectual progression. Norman Davies at Oxford University states that Nazism and Fascism were

the product of enlightenmentthe fruits of revolution. That is, that societies do not develop in equal

waysNazism and Fascism were part of the modernisation process. The Iraqis opposed the British in

the First World War for they had no national identity and therefore they defended the Ottomans. This

is a sign of a quick, fast development. We do not have a problem of illiteracy most problems comefrom the intellectuals themselves, the 9/11 perpetrators were not illiterate.

(Al-Nabulsis response: I referred to the problem being one of 80% peasants, not 80%illiterates).

The ruler will not allow a liberal message we can use technology to submit our message

independently of them.

The education system reflects that which is prevalent

Robert Reilly: There were 3000 philosophers in Paris this was only true because philosophy had

become institutionalised centuries before that and this allows for the impact of the thinking to

make itself felt.

In the West there was a different experienceand greater possibilities. For the Middle East theIslamists have all the weapons.

10 Tahir Haddad (1899-1935) was a Tunisian author, scholar and reformer. In his 1930 book Our Women in the Shara and Societyhe

advocated for expanded rights for women.

11 The Code of Personal Statusis a series of progressive Tunisian laws aiming at the institution of equality between women and men in anumber of areas. It was promulgated on August 13,1956 and came into effect on January 1, 1957. The Code abolished polygamy, created ajudicial procedure for divorce and required marriage to be performed only in the event of the mutual consent of both parties.


14/99


There is no social or cultural basis for reform.

Ansari: the Arab picture is not so gloomy, and that the concepts of modernity, rationalism and reform

are indeed making headway in Arab lands and that Arab peoples are undergoing continuous change in

step with the movement of history.

Abd al-Khaliq HusseinThe western impassethe awareness deficit

(For the full text of Dr Husseins paper, see below p.54)

Dr. Abdulkhaliq Hussein presented an impassioned plea loudly calling for the West to be on their

guard against the dangers to Western society posed by political Islam. He criticised its absurd

handling of the dangers posed by the Islamists and political Islam, and the indulgence granted to

fundamentalists who exploit their freedoms to sow extremism in the minds of the youth of the

expatriate Muslim communities. He cited the privileges granted to the fundamentalists and the

British government's inability to act and warned of the disastrous fate awaiting Muslims in Europe.

Dr Hussein underlined how western governments have yet to adopt a decisive position as to how tohandle the Islamists, and indeed, appear powerless to act against them. His main points were the

following:

The civilized world faces today the most dangerous threat from the radical political Islam whichpresents itself in a way designed to gain support in the West, but whose ultimate goal is

Islamization of the world and imposing the Sharia law.

Our problem is not with Islam as religion, but only with political Islam . We, as secularist liberals,are strong advocates of freedom of faiths, worship and expression. Our aim is to protect Islam as

a religion and human civilization from the threat of political Islam.

Why are Muslims here in the West? Injustice, and miserable economic and social statusbut theinjustice and misery did not come from nothing, but from their own cultures which include

religion.

Attempts to Islamize the West- There are many factors encouraging them to pursue this.

1) Islamists agility in using western conceptual language.

2) Western good intentions, plus administrative bureaucracy and judicial procedures. The result is

that the West is sleepwalking into the abyss.

The Islamists ability to speak in two tongues, and lie.

The funding of western academia,which in response turns a blind eye to Islamist activities anddiscourages critical views on Islam on campus.

The intimidation of liberals from criticizing Islamists through the offices of lawyers and lawsuits.

Fundamental, deep-rooted disdain for all non-Muslim cultures.

Fundamental anti-democratic stance

The danger to the West naivety as to Islamists intentions and subterfuges culturalexceptionalism as a means to root Islamism

The following measures must be adopted for protecting the West

1)

adopt theAlmuslihreform programme

2)

intellectual secular Muslims to build bridges with our Western colleagues working in the media and

cultural institutions


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3) launch educational and awareness-raising campaigns of Islamism as a totalitarian, fascistic system

4)

aid secularizing movements in the Muslim world, including linking economic aid to respect for

democracy, human rights and freedom of expression

5)

Western governments to impose pressure on Saudi Arabia to halt its financial support ($87 billion

over two decades, as opposed to $7 billion spent by the Soviet Union over 70 years to spread

Communism) to spreading religious extremism and political Islam

Failure to resolve the Islamist threat in the West risks the depletion of Western patience and the

emergence of right wing politics that will target Muslims in the way Jews were targeted earlier.

Comments

Shaker: Islamists have opportunities opening up to them. The Muslim Brotherhood are showing

themselves to be very intelligent, they want to rule and are able to make the necessary compromises

to stay in power. We liberals are losing people every day. Modernism has receded. We are

responsible for these mistakes, since we have not been using the language of Islam to make our case.

Ashraf Abdelkader: the individual has not yet been born in the Middle East culture. We are alsocowards, and are fearful of authority.

Al-Ansari: we do have to criticise ourselves, but not punish ourselves.

Ben Slama: People in the Middle East are no longer the herds they once were. They are now

demanding their rights, instead of the constant mantra of the Palestinian Question. Political Islam is

effectively undergoing an exam, and will have to transform itself into a form of secularism. Take the

example of the Tunisian Nahda party: it is split, and now maintains only a superficially Islamic

discourse. Mosques in Tunisia are empty, and the Nahda party has lost 30 per cent of the electorate,

not least due to its record on defending human rights.

Abd al-Hamid al-AnsariDiagnosing the Arab-Muslim mentality as a precursor to reform

There are two messages that have to be communicated one to Muslims and the other to

Westerners.

To the Muslims: there is no clash of cultures taking place. Instead there is great room foroptimism and dialogue. The history of humanity is one of exchanges, this is a natural process and

we should not think that the West is in some way plotting against us to undermine or

contaminate our culture.

To the westerners: it is a misconception that the Arabs are in some way dominated by the

Salafists and the Muslim Brotherhood, for there are many reformers and enlightened people inthe Muslim world. Raja Ben Slama noted that it is all a matter of education all about

proportionality not content. To take the attitude that the Arabs are not fit for democracy and

therefore the West should not help them, is a mistake. You have to support enlightenment

wherever you find it.

What then are the obstacles? This very same question was posed a century ago to Muhammad

Abduh. Then it was answered to the effect that backwardness was due to the abandonment of

religion. This formula, currently espoused by al-Qaradawi, whereby one has to go back to the

origins, is not true. For instance, for 14 centuries the Arabs, failed to achieve a peaceful solution.

Another question posed asked whether it was the education system that was an obstacle. Or was it

technical and cultural backwardness? The Arab world tried socialism, then the interpretation wasthat imperialism stood in the way of progress. Al-Jabri concentrated on the Arab mind, as if in


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some way the Arab mind was different from other minds. Is there such a thing as an Arab mind?

What are the ills that beset such a mind?

Descartes said that the mind is the most noble human achievement. It is therefore a human heritage

and what we are dealing with is mentalities, interpretations and environments that constitute the

obstacles. Similarly in the Qurnthe concept of plurality is given divine support:

Had Allah willed He could have made you one community. But that He may try you by that which Hehath given you (He hath made you as ye are). So vie one with another in good works. Unto Allah yewill all return, and He will then inform you of that wherein ye differ. [Qurn V,48]

These are some of the obvious misconceptions. A most useful book for analysing the problem is that

by Abu Shaqqa entitled A Critique of the Arab Mind12.His constitutes the first objective criticismundertaken, one that was brought about by his admiration for the achievements of the West. He

took the view that if we rejected Western intellectuals, we will not be able to understand Islam

itself. We may catalogue qualities that constitute obstacles in the Muslim mindset:

1-Archaism: the Arab mind is captive to a glorious past; the delusion of a flourishing past

that makes us venerate our ancestors to such an extent that we that we seek in themsolutions to the problems of our contemporary societies. The ancients are still ruling us from

their graves.

2- Masculism: the Arab mentality is dominated by a cultural heritage that denigrates womanand believes in the superiority of the male as wiser and more rational; the delusion of

male superiority informs Arab lawmaking and induces it to diminish the rights of women in

various fields. The male is construed to be the guardian. The cause of this is the nature of

past production, or the life of skirmishes. Women did not have a productive role in this type

of society. Most legislation (even in trade) has this superiority feature. For instance, a

woman still cannot bequeath her nationality to her husband and children.

3- Sanctification: history is sacralised, whereby its moments of glory are selected out while athousand years of conflict and division and obscurantism are passed over in silence; wenever talk about the dark side of what Muslims did to others; students do not learn of the

bloody wars fought under the golden reign of Harun al-Rashid.

4- Isolationism: the Arab mentality is one that dismisses the other in the belief that itpossesses absolute truth. Under this scheme only we know what the absolute truth is

there are no economic, religious, or socialist truths when it comes to truth we have a

monopoly. This delusion is the dominant intellectual feature among all Islamic sects in their

disputes as to who constitutes the Saved Sect. The Jews, it is argued, were divided into 70

sects, and the Christian similarly into 70 sects. The Muslims were divided into 73 sects all

of whom bound for Hellfire except the one Saved Sect. The worst symbol of this

isolationism was the PhD awarded by the University of al-Imam in Riyadh to a Saudi

researcher for his thesis: Credal deviancy in the modern culturein which he proscribed 200

Arab intellectuals, describing them as infidel.

5- Suspicion of the other: the delusion of a global conspiracy against Islam and Muslimsdominating the larger part of the Arab-Muslim mindset and its various political currents:

nationalist, leftist and political Islamist. Israel itself is seen as having been created to forestall

Arab unity. Yet over history westerners have sought Arab unity, and not out of some

imperialist plan. Muslim and Arab historians continue to perpetuate the Great Lie, the global

scale sedition, the eternal enmity of the Jew who tricked the Muslims. The Protocols of

12On this see al-Ansaris article forAlmuslih:A Critique of the Muslim Mind.
http://www.almuslih.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=196:a-critique-of-the-muslim-mind&catid=56:islam-and-rationality&Itemid=245http://www.almuslih.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=196:a-critique-of-the-muslim-mind&catid=56:islam-and-rationality&Itemid=245http://www.almuslih.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=196:a-critique-of-the-muslim-mind&catid=56:islam-and-rationality&Itemid=245http://www.almuslih.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=196:a-critique-of-the-muslim-mind&catid=56:islam-and-rationality&Itemid=245


17/99


Zion are considered an undisputed truth, despite the fact that they emanated from Russian

propaganda.

6 The fantasy of reviving the Islamic Caliphate,which dominates all Islamist trends andforms their subconcious. It is founded upon the background of Muslim conception which

joins all powersthe religious, executive, legislative and media into one, so that there is

no checks and balances on its dominion. It is represented by the Egyptian President Mursisdeclaration of the Constitution.

7 - The fantasy of the demographic bomb,which dominates among the masses and the elitepolitically and religiously. The idea is that by multiplying the number of offspring one

achieves the most powerful weapon to confront the enemy. This is what the Palestinians

believe vis--vis Israel, and what Muslims in Europe believe will aid their cause in the face of

declining population levels amongst the Europeans. Islamists and therefore hold that birth

control policies are Western plot.

8 - Self-aggrandizement:the exaltation of oneself as opposed to the denigration of the otherand the magnification of his faults.

What is the remedy for this? How can we humanise this discourse?

By activating the mechanisms of criticism and review, by raising the ceiling of freedoms of

expression and for individuals to take on their responsibilities in criticising their societies and in

changing their way of thinking, towards one of openness to other cultures and benefiting from them.

The 2003 Paris Declaration on the Renewal of Religious Discourse13 underlined how Arabs havealways renewed their thought, and continue to do so in the modern period examples being Taha

Hussein and Shaker al-Nabulsi. The renewal of discourse is a necessity, and importantly it should not

be a monopoly of the clerics. We must make a distinction between Islam and the history of Muslims.

This discourse must go with a reform of culture and education, and the opposing of government

usage of religion as a tool.

Kamil al-NajjarThe reform value of a critical reading of Islam and early Islamic history

(For the full text of Dr Al-Najjars paper, see below p.50)

Dr al-Najjar provided a highly pessimistic view of the prospects for reform, taking up three broad

points: the nature of the religion, its historiography and its fiqh, and highlighted the obstacle in theMuslimsattitude to any challenges made to any of these three elements.

A political ideology:

Dr al-Najjar argued that Islam is different from other systems of belief in that it is more of a politicalideology than a creed. Moreover, Islam did not introduce any new concepts not already known to

the pre-Islamic Arabs of the 7thcentury. All the rituals of Islam from prayer to fasting, from hajj to

almsgivingwere known to the Arab tribes.

Muhammads call was therefore essentially a political call but one which was shrouded in religious

terms. The Muslim Brotherhood is true to this political nature of the call, as can be seen by their

emblem on their official webpage which states that:

13 The Paris Declaration on the Renewal of Religious Discourse stated that the renewal of religious discourse is an internal necessity,

derived from the Arab and Islamic world's sincere dissatisfaction with their increasingly marginal position in the world. The meeting

stressed the necessity of distinguishing between 'Islam as a religion' and 'Fiqh as religious thought', which errs and is subject to adaptation

and development.


18/99


Allah is our aim; The Quran is our constitution; The Prophet is our leader; Jihad is our way; Death in

Allahs cause is our dearest wish

All these slogans have nothing to do with religion, and everything to do with politics and power.

Muslim historiography

Dr al-Najjar argued further on the materials upon which reformers may wish to proceed. Orientalist

scholars such as Goldziher and Watt have challenged the reliability of all the fundamental texts of

the hadith and of Muslim history. Any critical reading of Islam inevitably means getting rid of the

bulk of the Sunna and of Muslim historiography. This would definitely enhance our chances ofreforming Islam, if that were at all possible to achieve.

Muslim fiqh

All Muslimfiqhis the product of faulty sources and even faultier scientific knowledge. The system ismysogynistic and racist in nature, being the product of eras of ignorance. Even so, it is taught today

unchanged in al-Azhar. Whereas in 19thc England the clergy had to study philosophy, physics and

chemistry, in the 21

st

Century Muslim world philosophy is banned in most countries, and the clericalcurriculum is confined to the Quran, thehadithand the sunna.

Takfr

Islam is, and has always been, intolerant of criticism and questioning. That is why when the

Mutazilitesstarted reading the Qurncritically, they were labelled zindiqs (atheistic skeptics).Al-Ghazali put an end to philosophy and any critical reading of Islam with his work The Incoherence of

the Philosophers, and Ibn Taymiyya followed this in the 13thc by labelling anyone who dared criticize

Islam as an apostate. This takfrthe labelling of others as apostates has been used by some ofthe most learned and tolerant ofMuslims and due to this threat very few people have dared read

Islam critically. Those who did in the Muslim World, like the Iraqi poet ar-Rusafi, the late Egyptian

sheikh Abbas Abdel Nour, Faraj Fouda, the present speaker, and so on, have had to live under thethreat of assassination. Indeed, Orientalists who in the past were free to write critically about Islam

now write some of them under pseudonyms (such as Ibn Warraq and the German Christophe

Luxenberg).

Islam is unreformable

There are a number of other reasons why Islam cannot be reformed. After the separation of Church

from State, Christianity lent itself to reform because the Catholic Church has a central authority in

Rome in the form of the Pope. Islam does not have such a central authority, and is plagued with

innumerable sects competing against each other and vying to demonstrate their adherence to the

tradition.

There is also a lack of moral leadership at al-Azhar University. Instead of leading the Muslim World in

reforming Islam and its sunna, the university chose to activate a committee called The Committeefor Defence of Shara.

For all these reasons Islam was not amenable to reform. As a political ideology, Dr al-Najjar

concluded, much like any other ideology it can only be reformedby consigning it to the dustbin of

history.

Raja Ben SlamaWomens rights as a lever for reform

Dr Ben Slama reflected an optimistic picture of the position of Arab women and their future. She

reassured the audience that the achievements of Tunisian women under the legacy of Bourguiba


19/99


have nothing to fear from the Islamists, since the forces of civic society in Tunisia are fully capable of

defending them.

She argued that change is possible despite the fact that the forces of civic society are everyday

having to defend the state of rights, law and general freedoms at every moment. Were it not for this

desperate defence the fundamentalists would have been able to demolish the achievements of

Tunisian women, achievements which all other Arab women can only envy.

Media misconceptions:

There are some cliches and misconceptions. The West for instance only concentrates on externals

when it comes to interpreting the Middle East. Le Monde, for example, reports on the activities ofSalafists in Tunisia but is not interested at all in the movements for reform taking place there. For

Tunisia is not Iran nor is it Algeria. An evidence of this is that female students who wear the niqabnevertheless refuse the concept of polygamy.

The scriptural problem

In Tunisia the Islamists pretend to accept democracy. But the fact is that there are dictatorial

elements within Islam itself. Islamists are therefore able to use the Scriptures as an excuse to block

equality. Theirs is therefore an ideological masculinity. Judaism forbade polygamy in the 18th

century, why does Tunisia continue to avoid forbidding it?

Our task is to liberate interpretation of the Scriptures, and render ones attitude to Scripture a

personaldomain.

In interpreting the Scriptures you find exactly what you want to find and you can interpret them in

any way you wish. Qurnic verses that have been interpreted in a backward fashion have caused

increased conversion to Christianityeducation will enable us to deactivate the negative verses.

The reality check of facts on the ground

Islamists are acutally unable to make any attempts againts the achievements of Tunisian women. In

Tunisia the principle of the superiority of men is no longer accepted society has changed. We may

see this in the way the Qurnis looked upon as to what it has to say about women.

1) A symbolic legal referencefocusing on the role of the two genders and the law

2) the perception of womenthe focus on the hijab

The Qurnmaintains an insistence upon social rules. Concerning the guardianship issue, Tunisiaswomen are joining the ranks of those who go to work, and this is leading to a change in this concept

on the superiority of men and the role of the genders.

Due to this change which Islamists were unable to resist, they gave up on the guardianshipissue and

focused on the hijab. Women have accordingly adopted hijab, but tellingly they have not given up ongoing out to work. This means that the guardianship is now dead. Fatwas on this matter are now

considered a joke. The Muslim family has changed, it is now more modern.

Material reality, therefore, represented by women going out to work, is the most powerful of factors

and works its influence far more than any efforts of reformers, and has brought to an end once and

for all the era of male supremacyall that is remaining being to equalise rights of inheritance.

Progress is threatened, nevertheless, for women still do not have full inheritance rights. Levels of

poverty are greater.

Some of the main elements we have to gamble on in our favour are:

Interpretationa wider basis for this is required, to encourage a freer interpretation


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Material realitythe progression of history is taking place not in isolation

Globalisationits influence to effect change

Educationthe fostering of the arts and culture

Secularisation - The reality is that secularisation is important, but it has to be an automatic,

innate reaction. At the moment, three quarters of what a person sees and understands goes backto religion.

Foreign support this should be considered a neutral, uncharged concept. The West shouldmaintain neutralityon the reform process in Tunisia. We can handle this ourselves, provided thatthe West does not support the Islamists. Political Islam is supported from abroad, butnevertheless the next elections in Tunis will rebalance matters.

The solution is clearly one of educationPolitical Islam is a reaction against modernitythe result ofthis is that Sharaschool graduates inevitably become teachers and al-Azhar graduates cannot apply

their education.

We have to apply principlesand to do that we have to teach what real principles are. We have atendency to think that speeches represent reality. We mustn't confine ourselves any longer to small

meetings and salon discussions.

We must use an easily understandable language

We must understand reform as a total processthe OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) is auseless organisation, in fact it is an obstacle since it does not accept the concept of human rights.

Comments

Al-Ansari: these are positive comments and signs of hope however they apply only to Tunisia and

not to other Arab societies, certainly not to Gulf societies. In her points of view I discerned ageneralisation that was contradicted by the reality of women in all our societies with the exception of

Tunisia. For male domination persists and the rights of women are curtailed.

Lafif Lakhdar: concerning scriptural interpretation, one could point out that 500 verses were replaced

by the Prophet himself, in his capacity as head of the government. The caliph Umar also replaced a

verse when there was disagreement as to its validity. By the ninth century AH the verse on charity/

zakat was also replaced. We have to inculcate through education and the greater availability of

information an openness of minds.

Ashraf Abdelkader: Liberals up to now present ideas and words and very little else; the United States

and the European Union need to develop a Marshall plan;

Al-Nabulsi: Ben Slamas point on guardianship is a very important point, it indicates a religious reform

will not happen of itself, instead we must change the reality. The French Revolution demonstratedhow society had come to accept changes and ideas that had taken place.

(Addressing al-Nabulsis comments on the sacralisation of history): We are frustrated people there

are pages and pages of fatwas but here almost everyone is joking about them so therefore they are

not all sacred. Our task here then is to persuade Muslims not to feel guilty.

Al-Najjar: Tunisia women should send delegations abroad to demonstrate their achievements and the

way forward


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Hashem SalehTowards an Arab-Islamic Enlightenment

Dr Saleh chose to give his personal experience as an illustration of the process of enlightenment.

Sensing the oncoming danger following the Khomeini revolution and the intensification of religious

conflict, he decided to leave Syria in 1979 bound for Paris for the purpose of completing his studies.

There he met with Mohamed Arkoun and studied under him, later becoming a translator of his

works and introducing his work to the Arab world. Today he is a symbol of Arab enlightenment

through his prodigious activities. He explains his tactics for disseminating enlightenment as being of

two levels:

the internal level by highlighting the enlightened elements in the Heritage so as to

confront the obscurantist elements

the external levelthe translation of Western enlightenment into the Arab world.

On the internal level, he spoke on the theological prison or the doctrinal closure in Islam, howMuslims are all imprisoned within sects and denominations whether they like it or not. Why is this

so? Because they have grown up with them since they were knee-high and have absorbed them with

their mothers milk, as if they were sanctified, infallible doctrines that admit of no discussion.Consequently it is very difficult to free oneself from them. Unless, at best, one follows Descartes

who at one stroke (after he grew older and matured) destroyed all of his earlier conceptions! At the

same time the idea that other religions and denominations are all utterly false is rooted in the

Muslim mentality. So how is it that Muslims can possibly love them or respect them? For they and all

the religions are nothing compared to them. Here is where the great peril which threatens the entire

Islamic world lies: for it is still living in a pre-modern phase, that is, one that precedes intellectual

and philosophical enlightenment.

The importance, then, is to fight culture with culture, to fight this inheritance with more of this

inheritance.

On the external level, Dr Saleh highlighted the importance of western scholarship on the origins ofIslam and early Islamic history, as a means of subverting the clerical stranglehold.14

Answering the question on how the West could directly help the process of Arab Muslim reform? Dr.

Saleh delineated three things:

1) Prevent Western extremists from provoking the Muslims by insulting their religious symbols

(the Prophets) and lend support to the issuance of a UN resolution prohibiting the

defamation of religions, since gratuitous provocations do not help the promoters of reform

and instead serve those who promote conflict. Conversely the West should demand that

Muslims prohibit sermons that defame other religions;

2) The West should support reform by encouraging petroleum states to aid non-petroleum

states through the promulgation of an Arab Marshall Plan, since the success of reform is bound up with the improvement of economic conditions. There is no need for western

financial resources to be made available for this, simply advice on how to construct such a

plan in the light of Europes own experience.

3) The West should support the forces of enlightenment among Muslims in the West, who

number 30 million in the USA and 7 million in the EU. They should support these by opening

institutes for the teaching of Islam to expatriate Muslim youth under a modern rationalist

methodology as France has undertaken recently.

14It is to be noted that Mohamed Arkoun entitled one of his works: Islam: To Reform or to Subvert?


22/99


In a latter communication with Stephen Ulph, Dr Saleh placed great emphasis on this last element:

I appeal to western states not to leave our expatriate communities prey to fundamentalist education

disseminated in their midst by the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists. Advanced western states

must promote a modern historical approach to teaching the Islamic faith among the Arab Islamic

communities living there. Otherwise we will never arrive at any solution to the problem of religious

extremism. Islam must be taught through a modern rational historical method, exactly as Christianity

is taught in the Catholic Institute in Paris or in Protestant divinity faculties.

Dr Saleh concluded with an appeal for patience, arguing that it was a tall order to expect that the

Arab Muslims could achieve in four days what the West achieved in four centuries.

Comments

On the subject of the external level, of the translation of Western enlightenment into the Arab worldand the role of western scholarship on early Islam:

Stephen Ulph: We do, of course, have to be constantly aware of the kiss of death problem ofwestern engagement. But more than that, we should also be aware of the problem of the knowledge

gap on the achievements of western Orientalism. We should perhaps note Mohammed Arkounslament concerning the damage that was being caused by the sudden confrontation of Muslims with

western scholarship, and the negative effect this was having on their ability to conduct an

unemotional debate:

I have observed that Western scholarship on Islamic studies, apart from its fragile results, hasoften left Muslims with a field of ruins, without caring about their intellectual responsibilityfor any damage caused [and] the psychological, ethical, existential impact of Muslimssuddenly faced with the collapse of their inherited traditional acceptance of revealed Truth

and divine Law.

The problem, he noted, was that:

Orientalists, with their intellectual arrogance, shook the foundations of a sacred tradition,knowing that no one from inside the community would take up the cudgels and propose newhorizons of meaning to those that had been dismissed.15

Would there be therefore a need to gradate the distribution of this information, in such a form that

avoids the possibility of rejection as psychotic vandalism and an act of enmity, as labelled by the

few traditionalist Muslim scholars that have come across it?16

A number of those present opposed the issuance of a UN resolution prohibiting the defamation of

religions:

Ashraf Abdelkader: this will simply be exploited for the purpose of narrowing freedom of expression,

one of the greatest and most important human rights.

Lafif Lakhdar: The world should not have to make concessions to Muslims, rather Muslims should act

as adults and learn to be indifferent like the Westerners.

Raja Ben Slama: Western legal systems are designed to criminalise insults made to the living, not

those made to the dead! Eastern culture, by contrast, sometimes is tolerant of insults made against

the living yet does not tolerate insults against the dead. The Muslim world should be taught how to

take insults.

15 M. Arkoun, Islam: To Reform or To Subvert?Saqi Books, London 2006, pp.70-71.

16 For an example of this see: S. Parvez Manzoor, Method Against Truth, Orientalism and Qur'anic Studies , 1987.


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Al-Nabulsi: Almuslih should engage in the translation into Arabic of the works of major Orientalists. Itshould do all it can to support the emerging liberal currents in Saudi Arabia.

Al-Ansari:what we need most is a boost to morale; the liberal trend needs to be helped to gain profileand self-confidence.

In a later correspondence with Stephen Ulph, Hashem Saleh subsequently was at pains to explain his true

intent on this point:

I would like to clarify my position which was misunderstood, or insufficiently clarified in the

conference hall.

I am not against historico-critical study of the religious heritage. In fact I have spent my life pursuing

this. But there is a difference between responsible, enlightening criticism undertaken for example by

academic orientalism, and an attack on religions through insult and gratuitous provocation. What I

wanted to say was the following: the insulting of major religious symbols and Prophets such as Moses,

Jesus, Muhammad and Buddha and so on is very damaging and always unacceptable from an ethical

standpoint. The Prophets have their own majesty, sanctity and status. Moreover, it is an absolutely

irresponsible act. Do we wish to kill the warden or pluck the vine?

We may well present liberating, critical historical studies on them but not disfiguring cartoons or

insults. For indecent insults are not objective historical criticism, and cannot provide a solution to the

problme of extremist fundamentalism. On the contrary, instead of weakening it, it feeds it and greatly

strengthens it. Moreover, it unjustifiably hurts the feelings of milllions of people and to no purpose. It

at times generates seething reactions resulting in many innocent victims. What right have we to do

this? Who can take on such a responsibility?

Even in a highly secular, enlightened state such as France Martin Scorseses film The Last Temptationof Christincited violent reactions. A puritanical Catholic group burnt down one of the cinema halls inthe famous Boulevard Saint Michel in the heart of Paris. Thirteen peole suffered injuries from the

explosion, four of them seriously. This took place on 22-23 October 1988. All of this was due to a film

that presented a highly human image of Christ. It claimed that he was subject to sexual temptations

like any other human being, in particular for Mary Magdalene. This is entirely contradictory to the

ideal, sacred, divine image formed of Christ and embedded in the minds of millions of believers over

the centuries. They considered this to be a deliberate disfiguration to His personality or a dispicable

attempt on the part of the director to attack Him. At that time the militant Catholics could not

tolerate it and blew up the cinema, terrorising other cinema halls and threatening them not to show

the film themselves.

So what about the Islamic world, then, where we have yet to witness a philosophical enlightenment

or even a religious reform of the 16th

century type? Where we are yet to witness secularism, objective

philosophy or even historical criticism or the sacred texts?

Even today there is yet to appear a John Locke or a Spinoza, or a Voltaire, a Diderot or an ErnestRenan, or dozens of their ilk (with the exception of Lafif Lakhdar and some others). Consequently the

provocation of traditional-minded believers by attacking the Prophets is an unethical and even banal

action. Moreover, it is very dangerous psychologically. It upsets the psychological balance of millions

of people and disturbs them deeply. We say this particularly since the majorty of Muslims are poor

and have nothing left other than their faith to cling to or depend upon in times of harshness, distress

and hunger.

Added to this is that it neither hastens nor delays the process of intellectual liberalisation. Indeed it

severely delays and damages the issue of enlightenment. It grants its Islamic, fundamentalist enemies

an effective weapon to fight against it and defeat it with ease. Moreover, it makes it appear that it

stands for insult, ridicule and mockery, and not for serious, sober scientific research.


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It is for this reason that I called on our western counterparts to prevent extremists in the West from

blackening the image of the Prophets, particular that of the noble Prophet Muhammad, in a

defamatory way. These are stupid acts that cause enormous damage to the cause of enlightenment

and reform. They furnish our fundamentalist opponents with an effective weapon with which to

attack us and defeat us with ease.

Lafif LakhdarPromoting deep reform through comparative religion

Mr Lakhdars paper was made available before the conference (see below p.43) and the paper delivered atRome summarised its main points. However, a number of recommendations were also given, which referencedhis detailed answers submitted to the questions posed by the conference invitation letter (see below p.25).

.............

Mr Lakhdar opened with an important observation underlining the importance of the Almuslihinitiative in providing a rare opportunity for progressive intellectuals to discuss reform in such a way

that decreases the isolation of individuals and promotes a collective response. He hoped that theparticipants had had the opportunity to read his paperThe Reform of Islam is both Necessary andPossibleby the translation made by Mr Ulph. The summary of his paper continued as follows:

The reform of Islam is part of a comprehensive whole: economic reformby its integration into theglobalised world economy;political reformthrough the reform of decision-making which henceforthshould be done by science and the computerrather than via prayer, as is taking place in Egypt and

Tunisia; the reform of the Arabic languageby transferring it from the language of the Qurn to thelanguage of science and technology by adopting scientific and technological terminology just as they

are with any Arabisation of these terms amounting to no more than the use of the Arabic

alphabet. The successful experience of Israel in this regard is illustrative; demographic reform(Egypt,for instance, has quadrupled its population in 60 years).

Most importantly, the reform of Islam through its study and teaching via modern studies incomparative religionsince Islamic studies of Islam are like a drug that has gone beyond its sell bydate.

Thefirst aimof this is to place Islam on an equal footing with all other faiths;

Its second aimis to teach Islam, its holy texts, its legacy and historical personalities throughthe prism of comparative religion which will place the relationship of the Muslim to his faith

and his culture on a transparent basis, one that is freed of divine legends, riddles or

mysteries;

Its third aim is to generate an Islamic religious rationalism, an aggiornamento, and updating

of his interests to conform with the institutions, sciences, and values of the world it is livingand against which it is still waiting an open warfare;

Its fourth aim argues that this Islamic religious rationalism should produce a Muslimindividual that thinks for himself and chooses his values himself, and his own method of

religious belief so that he frees himself from the directors of conscience, and prevent his

being dissolved into the Nation which generates the ideology of globalised Islamic

terrorism. We see evidence of this new individual forming but we require a reform of Islam

to turn it into the dominant element;

Its fifth aim is to cleanse Islam of violence the violence of the Shara with its shockingcorporal punishments (over the last 30 years Iran has stoned to death approximately 2000

women), the violence of personal status laws which have deprived women of theirfundamental rights for 14 centuries. Legalised violence also manifests itself injihad, inboth


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the defensive and the offensive forms ofjihad, the latter with its criminal aim impossible toachieve: the conversion of all humanity to Islam, following the killing of the last Jew! This

violence extends towards enmity to women, to which the Shara has added enmity towards

non-Muslimsstill active in the concept of the dhimmacommunities that are deprived offull citizenship rights. The non-Muslim wife is still deprived of her ability to inherit from her

Muslim husband and sonsa discrimination that dates from the Middle Ages.Islamic Shara law lies outside rational, universal positive law, and that therefore we are obliged,

willingly or not to adjust to this universal law, preferably willingly.

Over the last 10 millennia mankind has succeeded in transforming from the Agricultural Revolution

to the Industrial Revolution, which in turn is transforming into the Information Economy. It is a

transformation from the oral to the written, and thence from the written to the printed, and thence

from the printed to the new technologies. On the political level the transformation has taken place

from the rule of the divine intellect a property of the mediaeval period to the rule of human

intellecta property of the modern era.

Recep Tayyib Erdoan has formulated the paradigm for the reform of Islam thus: the necessity for

Islam to reconcile itself with freedom, secularism and democracy. The obstacle before this isformed by the traditionalist, politicised Islamic extreme right, one that persists in the worship of the

ancestors, maintaining that it is incumbent upon us in the 21st -century to live as our righteous

ancestors lived in the seventh century!

The reform of European Islam

It may be that the reform of Islam can be achieved in Europe more easily than in Muslim lands, due

to its integration into modern societies with their institutions, sciences, rational and humane values.

The primary obstacle to this integration is the demographic timebomb large families, particularly

polygamous ones (in France alone there are 30,000 families with 600,000 children, which averages

out at 14.5 children to each family, the majority of them failing in their education). 5 million French

Muslims account for 49.6% of the prison population of the country, while 57 million non-Muslim

Frenchmen account for the other half.

The labourers of the 21st-century are all technicians, engineers, researchers, scientists and doctors.

European Muslims constitute a very small minority among these five classes who are qualified to

work in the professions of the future. For which reason marginalisation and unemployment is

increasing among those who fail to complete their education.

After this introduction, I shall attempt to respond to the Rome Conference questions posed by the

director of theAlmuslihwebsite Mr. Stephen Ulph:

Lafif Lakhdar - Detailed response to the Almuslih table of questions

How do Muslim reformers envisage the task facing them, in releasing Islamic thought from the

grip of uncreative traditionalism and textual literalism?

I cannot speak for all my colleagues, for there is no institution which brings us together nor any

shared programme that defines the task and the priorities or the possibility of overcoming them. I

personally do not think that there can be any effective combating of textual literalism (the source of

fanaticism and terrorism) other than through a historical reading of the text: the abrogation of all

the verses and hadith that conflict with the interests of Muslims and the interests of humanity.

Finally the separation of that which is religious and mundane by confining it to the private sphere.


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What problems of public perception do these reformers face?

Anything new generally has to swim against the tide. This is especially the case in religion amongst

the Muslim public where, to a large degree, the individual has yet to make its appearance. The

individual remains to a great extent dissolved in the nation and does not think for himself in at least

in nine out of ten cases, and instead resorts to the traditional shaykh and the Mufti.

Naguib Mahfouz said that the corpse of Abduh, the Mufti of Egypt and the inau

the 2012 rome conference report

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