Who defines Muslims?

Dr. Aslam Abdullah has an article on Islamicity discussing the plethora of new terms for defining Islam that are in fashion these days. While he makes some important points, the current context is such that the United States has decided to put its force behind the so-called "moderate" and "progressive" versions of Islam - that would be designed to create an Americanized version of Islam - largely toothless, cultural, and secular.

And you can expect that major university, and foundation funding will be given to organizations pushing these new sects of "Islam." You can also expect lots of new publications, and media attention given to these newly minted, and manipulated versions of "Islam."

Terms that are in fashion currently are moderate Islam, progressive Islam, enlightened Islam, modern Islam, extremist Islam, liberal Islam, conservative Islam, reformed Islam, orthodox Islam, fundamentalist Islam, medieval Islam, and obscurantist Islam, etc. What is interesting is that these terms emerge from the limitations of our own readings of Islam controlled by our own social-political experiences. For instance, in the context of the U.S. and the West, it is now fashionable to use terms such as progressive Islam and moderate Islam.

Click here to read Dr. Abdullah's article

See also the Living Tradition Blog's article on "Who needs a reformation?"