[Mb-civic] The Right Time for An Islamic Reformation - Salman Rushdie - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

The Right Time for An Islamic Reformation

By Salman Rushdie
Sunday, August 7, 2005; Page B07

When Sir Iqbal Sacranie, head of the Muslim Council of Britain, admitted 
that "our own children" had perpetrated the July 7 London bombings, it 
was the first time in my memory that a British Muslim had accepted his 
community's responsibility for outrages committed by its members. 
Instead of blaming U.S. foreign policy or "Islamophobia," Sacranie 
described the bombings as a "profound challenge" for the Muslim 
community. However, this is the same Sacranie who, in 1989, said that 
"Death is perhaps too easy" for the author of "The Satanic Verses." Tony 
Blair's decision to knight him and treat him as the acceptable face of 
"moderate," "traditional" Islam is either a sign of his government's 
penchant for religious appeasement or a demonstration of how limited 
Blair's options really are.

Sacranie is a strong advocate of Blair's much-criticized new 
religious-hatred bill, which will make it harder to criticize religion, 
and he actually expects the new law to outlaw references to Islamic 
terrorism. He said as recently as Jan. 13, "There is no such thing as an 
Islamic terrorist. This is deeply offensive. Saying Muslims are 
terrorists would be covered [i.e., banned] by this provision." Two weeks 
later his organization boycotted a Holocaust remembrance ceremony in 
London commemorating the liberation of Auschwitz 60 years ago. If Sir 
Iqbal Sacranie is the best Blair can offer in the way of a good Muslim, 
we have a problem.

<>The Sacranie case illustrates the weakness of the Blair government's 
strategy of relying on traditional, essentially orthodox Muslims to help 
eradicate Islamist radicalism. Traditional Islam is a broad church that 
certainly includes millions of tolerant, civilized men and women but 
also encompasses many whose views on women's rights are antediluvian, 
who think of homosexuality as ungodly, who have little time for real 
freedom of expression, who routinely express anti-Semitic views and who, 
in the case of the Muslim diaspora, are -- it has to be said -- in many 
ways at odds with the Christian, Hindu, non-believing or Jewish cultures 
among which they live.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/05/AR2005080501483.html?nav=hcmodule 

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