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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