Malek Chebel, a renowned anthropologist focusing on the Arab world, is one of today’s prominent French-speaking North African(Algerian)intellectuals. In 2004, he established, in France, the Foundation for an Enlightened Islam. He has published some 20 books on Islam, in which he has frequently dealt with sensitive and uncommon subjects, such as love in Islam: He claims that Islam is a sensuous religion and condemns the strict fundamentalist approach to relations between men and women. He has also tackled such taboos as wine and homosexuality in Islam. His publications include a Love Dictionary of Islam (Plon, 2004) and an Encyclopaedia of Love in Islam (Payot, 1995). His other main focus is reform of Islam, to which he has dedicated two major books: Islam and Reason: The Struggle of Ideas (Perrin, 2005), and Manifesto for an Enlightened Islam (Hachette, 2004),writes the Director of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
In his Manifesto for an Enlightened Islam (Manifeste pour un islam des lumieres), Chebel puts forth 27 proposals for extensively reforming Islam.
1.A New Interpretation of the Koran
2.The Preeminence of Reason over All Other Forms of Thought and Beliefs
3.Society to Be Managed by Politics, Not Religion
4.Investing in Man
5.The Preeminence of the Individual over the Community
6.Freedom of Thought and Conscience Must Become a Muslim Virtue
7.Respect for the Other
Specific Reforms
8.Declaring Jihad Useless and Obsolete
9.Abolishing All Fatwas Calling for Death
10.Promoting the Status of Women
11.Abolishing Corporal Punishment
12.Banning Genital Mutilation
13.Punishment for Honor Killings
14.Modernizing the Civil Law and the Personal Code
15.An Independent Judiciary
16.Free Access to Sounds and Images
17.Fighting the Phenomenon of Political Assassination in
an effort to Promote Democracy
18.Eliminating the Cult of Personality in the Islamic World
19.Firm Sanctions against Corruption
20.Investing in the Field of World Administration
21.Banning of Slavery and All Other Trafficking in Human
Beings
22.Promoting a Work Ethic
23.Ending Usury
24.An Active Policy Regarding New Technology
25.Defining a Clear Bioethics Policy
26.Protecting the Environment
27.Promoting Play
He concluded that youth, civil society, and education were the Keys to Reforms.But he is blissfully unaware that there is no room for reforms in Islam.
27 Propositions for Reforming Islam
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Nonsense... Islam doesnt change according to the times. This is contrary to its spirit. Islam is only ”pure” when it remains in Parrallel to the model of Medinan Society in the time of The Messenger of God. And Muslims see Medinan Society, regardless of how non muslims percieve it, as the Ultimate civil society built on Truth, Justice and Piety. A Model that was left for mankind as an example (and it was intented to be an example for all times by The One Above The Seven Heavens who revealed it) and more importantly, a model that will return, and will become a global phenominan ”again”, at least with the arrival of Jesus Son Of Mary again. Islam hence doesnt change, and wont change. The Qur’an is God Word - Period! How can anyone change and tamper with Gods word? The Jews did, and so did the christians, but what did it bring them except the pleasure of Satan and the Wrath of The Most Blessed Almight God? And what will their faces be like on The Day Of Judgement, Also known as The Day of Repayment? Islam doesnt change according to the times! It is Gods Law which will stay intact! Without it mankind has no direction. If God States that Homosexuality is an accursed and degrading act, this cannot be changed to suit a Godless generation of Homosexuals! Regardless of the number, or the positions they may hold in a society! If God states that adultury and fornication are crimes, they will stay crimes always, regardless of the amount of people indulging in it! In the same way, Gods Law cannot be picked and chosen. This is contrary to the Spirit of ”We Hear and We Obey” For the countless blessings the God has given us and continues to do so, blessings such that if you were to convert all the trees in the world into pens, and all the seas into ink, and then bring this amount again seven times over, you still wouldnt be able to list the blessings, for those blessings, and for everything good that you have in your life, God isnt asking much! Only that you... ”Hear and Obey”
What do you mean by ’Islam’?
If you mean ’the official doctrines of the major denominations of Islamic faiths’, then I do not think that most of these things will happen.
But compare the way that Western society has changed over five hundred years - at one time the various churches held enormous legal and real power over everyday life. Now Christian churches have little or no state power, only social pressure in an individualistic society.
This did not change because the Catholic Church reformed itself. Over centuries, people learned to decide how to take control over their personal lives, instead of letting priests tell them how to live.
The Christian churches stopped change when they could, and learned to deal with it when they could not stop it. But their actual written doctrines have changed very little.
What will the people of Muslim societies decide to do? If all good Muslims decide, for instance, that honour killings are evil and must stop, then who shall stand against them? No-one, no matter what the priests say.