Modernisation and Islam

Christianity and Judaism went through a modernization process and “civilized” their own religions. The Renaissance or reformation in Christianity started somewhere around 1400AD. Christians started looking towards for answers themselves, rather than to God & religion and religion stopped being the fulcrum of their lives. Incidentally they also stopped taking their texts literally.

However reformation in Islam is stopped practically before it is born. Influential religious establishments like Al Azhar (Egypt) and Saudi Arabia (SA) funded Wahabis strongly oppose change and are never short of funds. No islamic institution allows reform as doing so would mean depriving them of their raison de etre. (We do have scattered dissent even from the establishment such as Ayatollah Boroujerdi of Iran who advocates the separation of religion and state). Most archaeological excavations are also not allowed in SA (new finds might upset the well established schools of thought in SA). Most Islamic theologians have never read a book other than their own religious ones. How will they have any worldview to speak about?

Almost all Muslims remain unaware of the violent passages in the Koran and Hadith & rely on filtered messages from the mullas. Muslims who are aware of these passages ignore them or interpret privately like modern Christians.

Now the issue is – how do we change or reform islam. In my view it is sufficient if muslims stop viewing the quran and hadith literally though it is easier said than done.

SA is the most imp. spiritual centre for muslims and this reality is one we have to work with. If any change is to happen to mainstream islam it has to come from SA for its acceptance amongst muslims.
The USA created Islamic radicals (Taliban) to eject the Soviet Union from Afghanistan. The end(?) result was Osama bin Laden and 9/11. The USA is THE main backer of Saudi Arabia – militarily, politically economically & in every other conceivable way. It maintains a sizeable military presence on Saudi soil on a permanent basis & SA has even pegged the Saudi riyal with the US dollar. In other words they have relinquished their economic independence to a large extent. The largest oil producer (Arabian American Oil Company – ARAMCO) is controlled by the US, US is the largest weapon supplier to SA, and so on.

Hence US is the most important lever on SA. 9/11 has jolted the US into rethinking its relationship with SA. Since 9/11 the US leaned hard on SA to reinterpret or repackage islam. But the progress is extremely slow owing to the entrenched lobbies. However there are definite winds of change. For example the mutawa or religious police in SA has been defanged to a large extent. Toady a non expat woman can walk on the roads in SA sans head or face covering (only the lower covering is compulsory), TV channels are open. In fact a city such as Riyadh appears more or less like any other city.

Now there is talk of opening multiplexes & women being allowed to drive & women are allowed to move alone. There is tremendous stress on women’s education through opening of many new women’s colleges and universities (There can be no better news than this). There are very liberal scholarships for Saudi women (even for going abroad!), Saudi music bands have started. Radical hatred spouting mullas have been sidelined and replaced by softer ones in mosques.

Why are these issues relevant. Simply because it indicates that SA under US pressure (make no mistake) is now opening up and consciously becoming less conservative. Of course things are not so hunky dory (You can’t undo 1400 years of living in a few years) and you do get quite a few instances of throwback to the old times. But the trend is definitely forward looking.

If the current trends are extrapolated into the future I feel that SA would look like any other place in the world. (Of course SA would always retain its some of its conservative elements (the haj revnues are pretty important for it). As conservative muslims throughout the world are not immune to trends in SA you can expect them to follow along.

Looking at trends I feel that islam has reached its nadir and things can only get better. Wishful thinking would have me believe that democracy would take hold in the gulf but this cannot happen till there is oil (or till a suitable alternative to oil is found). The USA will never let this happen as the gulf monarchs are in its hands. Democratic regimes have a bad habit of bothering too much about the interest of their country! For example USA overthrew the democratically elected secular regime of Mosaddeq of Iran because he nationalised the Iranian oil company (which was previously controlled by Britain) and installed the puppet shah of iran. Iran has gone downhill ever since.

Democracy would also lead to a liberalisation of the thought process in Islamic countries and ultimately reform a religion which is stuck in a time warp. Contrary to popular opinion people in Islamic countries do not vote or support Islamic parties. For example I recall in the last election in Pakistan the Islamic parties got only around 2% of the vote. There is not reason to believe that the gulf population would vote any differently. Religion in the gulf is used more to control the population than anything else through severe restrictions in thought and action (obviously). However for the ruling monarchy and American citizens, no rules are applicable.

There is mixed news throughout the muslim world. I for one hope that moderation and liberalization would prevail.