[Dean's World] Ali Eteraz: Muslim Secularism and "the Iran Problem"

[notify at powerblogs.com]

Posted by Ali Eteraz:
Muslim Secularism and "the Iran Problem"
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1192616222.shtml


   Greetings,

   Part VI of my ongoing series on Islamic reform is up at the Guardian.
   The series has picked up steam with various blogs discussing it.

   I titled this part [1]Muslim Secularism and "The Iran Problem" -
   However it is under a different title there. The tagline, however, is
   accurate:

     Western pundits are misdiagnosing Islamism. Democracy is not the
     issue; the issue is appointed clerics who override legislation.

   An excerpt:

     It is as if people cannot conceive of Islams that are other than
     ideological. Let me be even more blunt: westerners, with neither an
     appreciation of Muslim history nor of current trends in the Muslim
     world, inspired only by fatuous slogans ("Reform Islam!"; "Where is
     my Islamic Enlightenment!"), are in a de facto alliance with the
     Muslim right, because they refuse to entertain the possibility of
     any other kind of Islam beyond Islamism.

     Show people the way towards an Islam that doesn't have political
     aspirations and their first impulse is to start defending Qutb and
     Mawdudi as if their life depended on it. The cynic in me blames our
     new pundit class which requires the perpetuation of Muslim devilry
     to continue turning a buck. Then again, perhaps we're just dealing
     with "realists" who simply are hungry for facts.

     Let's start by looking at the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's
     newly-released platform. I think it is obvious that the most
     problematic issue with it - besides the alienation of minorities
     and women - is that it seeks to establish "a board of Muslim
     clerics to oversee the government". This is illiberal.

     We can further see that the Muslim right wants to use the vote,
     instead of the revolution, to empower such a board of clerics.

     The aspiration for this board of clerics represents the heart of
     the Muslim right. The most glaring way, then, to identify an
     Islamist is if he or she agitates for such an institution. Once
     such an institution is set up, all other Islamist social programmes
     - anti-woman, anti-minority, anti-modernity legal schemes - will be
     approved, while all anti-Islamist programmes and 21st century human
     rights schemes will be struck down.

     Among friends I off-handedly refer to the desire for such a
     clerical oligarchy as "the Iran problem".

   I kindly request reading the article in full, as well as the series.
   BTW, this post is the penultimate part.

References

   1. http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ali_eteraz/2007/10/muslim_secularism_and_its_allies.html