From Silvers

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Visit the website devoted to Khaled Abou El Fadl's work Scholar of the House

The following article is published in Omid Safi's edited volume, Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender, and Pluralism

The Modern Ugly and the Ugly Modern

• Summary

Confronted by extreme acts of ugliness, there is no alternative for a Muslim, who is interested in reclaiming the moral authority of Islam, but to confront the quintessential questions of: Is this Islam? Can this be Islam? And, should this be Islam? It is simply too easy to shirk off responsibility for extreme acts of ugliness to Western imperialism, and colonialism, to engage in the morally evasive strategy of complaining about false universals, and to blame everything and everyone else, but refuse a confrontation with one’s own conscience. With every major human tragedy committed in the name of Islam, I think that it is imperative for every Muslim to put aside, for a while, the various intellectual methods by which responsibility is projected, transferred, diluted, and distributed, and to engage in a conscientious pause. In this pause, a Muslim ought to critically evaluate the prevailing systems of belief within Islam, and reflect upon the ways that these systems of belief might have contributed to, legitimated, or in any way facilitated the tragedy. In my view, this is the only way for a Muslim to honor human life, dignify God’s creation, and uphold the integrity of the Islamic religion.

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