Thanks for the response Ayesha but as the central point you are making is that I am suggesting ALL youth who self-interpret scripture will do so in a way that will give rise to terrorism then you have not understood my tract. Perhaps its my fault and I wasn’t as clear as I could have been. Let me give it another go.
My central point was that leaving the interpretation of Islam in the hands of people who have little idea of how to do this will result in all manner of ideas. Some of which you may wish to see…but others you will not. Leaving aside the distain with which many reformists hold todays clerical class they have overwhelmingly spoken out against ISIS and their ilk. Why have they done this? Because through their scholarship they are able to state with credibility that the use of mindless terror has no place in the faith. This is what mainstream clerics are saying today.
Consider the opposite. A free for all. Every person for themselves. Do as you interpret. Again you may find that this approach will give rise to the changes you wish to see but what you are seeing now with ISIS is also the fruit of such an approach. Its widely accepted that they cherry pick and interpret things the way that suits them with very little understanding of Islam. So its not a case of everyone who does this ending up doing bad stuff but a proportion will and are doing. All it takes is a tiny proportion to wreck havoc. Its not just the liberal minded young muslims who will adopt this approach.
The way we understand this issues boils down to the way we view religion in general and Islam. If you look to history and see what happened with christianity theres a lazy tendency to try and overlay this model on islam; ie that a reformation is required. Others would say that what we witness in the muslim world today bears little correlation with classical islam; therefore a restoration is required.
Heres an interesting fact for reformists to consider; which state was the first to decriminalise homosexuality? That would the islamic caliphate that was the Ottoman Empire.
Reformation or restoration; that is the question.
