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.