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RE: Theology of Steemit Series: Article 1 - Introducing the Series
Say @ilt-yodith, have you read Islam Without Extremes - A Muslim Case for Liberty by Mustafa Akyol? That's were I first learned about the Mutakallimun.
I have not, I’ll have to check it out.
The title sounds fascinating but only because for me it seems so commonsensical.
My understanding of Islam (such as I have an understanding) is that the theology on which almost every surviving variant of the faith is based, tends to be overwhelmingly concerned with good relations between all men and between Man and God.
Of course you can take parts of the Quran and the Hadiths and interpret them in a way that can be used to justify horrible violent things.
But no more so than with any other religious Scripture.
The many believing Muslims that have been a part of my life have been, without exception, kind, good-natured, and empathetic towards their neighbors.
And, for various reasons, in many of the situations in which we found ourselves, we all had some arguably compelling reasons to not feel so favorably disposed towards one another .
A common analysis of us Western Christians about Islam is that it has never had a Reformation - a movement to revive the original intent of the founders of the religion after so many centuries of evolution, a movement that would lead millions farther away from the mindset of Wahabbi Islam in Saudi Arabia or the Political Islam of the Muslim Brotherhood. Akyol makes a good case that everything needed for a liberal, or even a Libertarian Muslim mindset is there in the words of the Prophet, and many get-back-to-the-liberal/rational-spirit-of-Islam movements have emerged, such as the Mutazalites, but have been snuffed out or otherwise superseded by Political Islam, and I might add, Western meddling hasn't furthered the cause of a liberal theology.
While I'm not part of that Christian "us" to which you refer, I fully understand what you are saying, and in fact, would take it a step further.
It's my understanding that the various Sufi schools of Islam were around long before what we could all an essentially "retrogressive reformation" of the Salafi, Wahhabi, Deobandi, Muslim Brotherhood etc...movements came around and took the absolute strictest parts of various mainstream Sunni movements, threw some radical politics in there, and churned out a very ahistorical version of Islam.
I don't think Western meddling of any kind has ever furthered any good cause, in any circumstance...ever. So I'm right there with you on that one.