Daniel Pipes and the Pope: Can Islam Change?

In reponse to recent comments by Pope Benedict that Islamic tradition does not allow itself to change and modernize, Daniel Pipes has written an interesting article arguing the contrary. As Pipes sees it, Islam can indeed change via reinterpreting the Koran, and small efforts to do so are already in place, the implication being that Islamic radicalism can eventually be tamed through this method.

Needless to say, Pipes has taken a lot of heat for this view, as expressed in many comments on his website and elsewhere. But is he correct, or is Islam truly doomed to long-term stagnation?

Regarding Islam itself, I happen to agree with Pope Benedict and Pipes's detractors; as the religion's history has shown, its core tenets certainly have not proved very adaptable to change. But I think the question we must ask is actually a different one: Not whether Islam can change, but whether Muslims can change.

And the answer, in my opinion, is a resounding yes. It has happened, in fact, all throughout history.

Radical Islam in itself is merely a religious-based ideology; without its practitioners, it threatens no one. Only when large numbers of Muslims live their lives according to its fundamentalist sway does it become dangerous. But history has shown that, by and large, most Muslims do not enjoy living in this manner. Most of today's Muslim nations were originally conquered and settled by Arabs who practiced fundamentalist Islam, but over time the people living in these regions moved away from the orginal religion. Of course they still practiced Islam in general, but by no means did they live fundamentalist-style. Outside Arabia (and even within it to a degree), this occurred all around the Muslim world, from West Africa to Central Asia to Indonesia. Fundamentalist Islam itself may not have changed, but most of its practitioners certainly did.

Today we are seeing a resurgence of the old Islam, but that's only because certain nations (primarily Saudi Arabia and to a lesser degree Iran and Pakistan) are deliberately spreading it for their own gain. Most Muslims still don't like being governed by it (some in the West may notably advocate it, but ask those who have truly lived under it -- such as in Iran -- how they feel), and if groups like the Saudis would let up, I believe the number of practicing fundamentalists will rapidly shrink just as it did in the past.

On that note, then, the best way to curb radical Islam is not to change the religion itself (which probably won't work), but to stop the Saudi fundamentalist propaganda and to grant Muslims freedom so that they, rather than be controlled by oil-rich sheiks and autocratic dictators, can live the way they choose.

America has certainly made much headway on the freedom front, but on Saudi Arabia, much remains to be done. Daniel Pipes is certainly right about one thing - we need to get moving.