Reform: To many in the West, Islam seems mired in a pre-medieval mindset that makes it unable to reconcile the fundamental precepts of its faith with those of the modern world. But there are encouraging signs of change.
In what Roger L. Simon rightly called "an extraordinary" New Year's speech that got virtually no attention in the West, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi issued a sweeping, no-holdsbarred critique of Islam — and suggested it needs major reform.
"It's inconceivable," said al-Sisi, as translated by Raymond Ibrahim's blog, "that the thinking that we hold most sacred should cause the entire umma (Islamic world) to be a source of anxiety, danger, killing and destruction for the rest of the world."
“Is it possible,” he asked, “that 1.6 billion (Muslims) should want to kill the rest of the world’s inhabitants — that is 7 billion — so that they themselves may live?” Islam needs a “religious revolution,” he concluded. Three things are notable in this remarkable speech. One, al-Sisi is the leader of Egypt, the most populous Arab Islamic nation, with 5% of the world’s Muslims. His speech will have a major impact.
Two, it comes in the wake of the failed “Arab Spring” and the subsequent takeover of a wide swath of the Mideast by the fundamentalist Islamic State and its allies. It suggests there’s a growing revulsion at being associated with the beheaders, rapists and torturers who operate under the flag of fundamentalist Islam.
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Three, al-Sisi pointedly made his comments at Al-Azhar — the same Cairo mosque/university that gave birth to the Muslim Brotherhood, and where President Obama in 2009 made a cringe-inducing apology to the Muslim world. The contrast couldn’t be sharper. (the link included is mine)Read the full article HERE.
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