Of course we are where we are because of how history unfolded. How else can it be?
Just because something unfolds in a certain way, it doesn't mean that it's the only way that it could have unfolded. To me, the way that Islam unfolded was not inevitable from its conception.
And while my comment was in jest, I fully believe in the essence of it. I'm not a believer, and to me Islam is just another ideology in the endless ocean of human ideologies. And it is an ideology that the world would be much better without. That obviously applies to many other ideologies, but I tend to bring up Islam because it touches the lives of many of the people I personally know.
I understand that. Unfortunately, I disagree with who you characterize 'Islam' so monolithically.
If you said something like "the Wahhabist interpretation of Islam is an ideology that the world would be much better without", then I would agree with you. Is this how you feel about Sufism? Sufism is Islam!
Muslims of the Muslim world are the ones who really pay the price Islam demands. The religion has obliterated Middle Eastern intellectual culture, and there are virtually no worthwhile Muslim thinkers as far as the rest of humanity is concerned.
This is of fault to the Muslim diaspora-- it is not the fault of the Islamic faith. The revelations initially given by the prophet Muhammad were not initially construed in such a way that made them intrinsically less open to critical discussion, or intellectual stimulation than the religion of Judaism or Christianity. The sociocultural characteristics of what make contemporary Islam so monolithic are a complete fabrication of what those in power have decided to do. That's why i cite to history-- it makes it quite easy for me to reconcile why a faith started with so much promise, yet it is where it is today. It gets particularly annoying when you take into account what roles the forces of colonialism have played.
The philosophical discourse within the Muslim world is over nonsense like whether it is permissible for women to drive or go to school. That bothers me more than all the violence and bloodshed, because it tells me that these things are here to stay.
That bothers me too. Fortunately, people like Reza Aslan seem to be taking discourses in a different direction, in directions that I myself resonate with.
I'm just not seeing a path to the modernization that Islam desperately needs. The sad fact is that Islam acts as a serious barrier to progress wherever it's present. Even in more modern places like Turkey, it is hard to argue that Islam adds up to a net positive. How can you blame me for being resentful when I don't see a way forward for the culture that I come from?
I do not blame you in any way. I do see a way forward for the culture-- but I get why you don't. Many don't.
The advent of the internet information age, at worst, in theory should make a given religion more heterogenous. Consequently, while this might nurture the extremist interpretations of Islam, so to will it nurture the democratic, growingly secularification of nations with a muslim majority.
Every single Muslim, and non-Muslim who's interested in Muslim history and the contemporary politics of Islam should read this book:
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