The holy month of Ram-adan ended and the Eid Alfitr celebration started in the past few days. If you had not noticed, 1.2 billion Muslims around the globe (including five million here in the U.S.) took part in an annual fasting ritual. From sunrise to sunset, Muslims were expected to abstain from food, drinks, sex and smoking. It was a task that was hard to commit to, but beatific to accomplish.
In this time of joy and reflection, I wonder about Islam's state of affairs. The events that have transpired for the past three years put Muslims in a difficult position, not only in front of other non-Muslims, but also in front of themselves. The association of Islam with terrorism, human rights abuses, women's oppression and lack of an active democratic tradition are serious topics to be tackled.
Needless to say, Islam as a religion and a way of life have been misunderstood, misinterpreted and misused. There is no question about that. Yet Muslims have a moral responsibility to eradicate such evils from among their ranks. They have a duty to themselves and to the world to take an active role in affirming the true message of their faith.
It's not easy, but Jews and Christians did it a long time ago and Muslims can do it too. It's about time for them to consider a Muslim reformation movement.
The contentious clash between Islam and modernity occurs on several levels. From small family confrontations in immigrant households in the West, to freedom of speech and religion in the Islamic world, Muslims need to recognize the need to reconcile their religious practices with their modern lives. It's time to live up to the image we want to achieve in the eyes of the world.
The call for a religious reformation within the Muslim faith should not be taken as an assault on ethnic/religious pride, but as a compassionate plea to reconfigure the way our lives work and overlap with Islam.
Modern notions of human rights, secularism and pluralism should be embraced out of moral convention, as well as personal interest.
The old "normative" ideas about Islam and how it should be practiced must be challenged, re-evaluated and positioned in accordance with our times. A humanistic tradition among the believers is essential to face the challenges that (unlike most Muslims believe) are actually growing within the body of Islam, not outside of it.
Yaser Alamoodi is a political science and religious studies senior. Reach him at Yaser_alamoodi@hotmail.com.
