But ponder this: do not ISIS militants, with their snuff films, sex slaves, and mass crucifixions not ask of ordinary Muslims–who have been acculturated to Western standards of fundamental decency, respect for others, and “civilized behavior” in the broadest sense–where they stand? They are told in no uncertain terms that if they do not stand with them they stand against them.
Could all this sociopathic cruelty and violence not lead to a backlash in the other direction among most Muslims? I like to think it possible. If I were President, I would do all I could to feed that. I would emulate the Soviets and spend huge amounts of money on propagandas of various sorts. We live in an age where our main choice is whose propaganda we are consuming, not whether or not we consume it. Only those able to make their decisions can hope to avoid it, and very few people know enough to be able to do this. I like to think I can, but who really knows? I can’t say this for sure. I perhaps merely differ in the degree, not the fact, of my delusion.
In any event, I and others have been saying for some time that Islam needs some form of reformation, some sustained engagement with the history and theology of the religion which has as its aim the incorporation into pervasive belief and practice what most inhabitants of the world as it exists today consider to be decent, humane, and just.
God, it seems to me, has not stopped speaking to us. We could view sacred scripture as a sort of epigenetic landscape, where many possibilities exist, but only those come into being which are invoked into being by use and attention. A religion, like a life, becomes a combination of its innate possibilities, and the environments in which it is expressed and lived.
Is it wicked to reject the mass murder of people whose sole crime is not sharing your religious faith? This is, I think, a good question.
Is it wicked to treat women as equal to men in their claims to dignity, education, and respect?
Is it wicked to consider rape as always wrong, even when done by Muslims to infidel women? Is that a clear rejection of what God himself taught, and even if so, can verses emphasizing mercy and charity not also be invoked? And if not, if rape is merely permitted but not commanded, then can it not easily be condemned by the pious as itself wicked?