Sam Harris & Maajid Nawaz on reforming Islam

[mralstoner]

If this video doesn't play then go to Sam's blog and watch it there:

http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/a-war-of-ideas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwQhu1A-Ats
Transcript ...

Penny drops at the ABC: maybe Islam really does need reform. Maybe there really is a “death cult”

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andre...here_real/

TONY JONES: Sam, briefly on specifics, you maintain pretty much that everything a jihadist needs to justify their beliefs and their actions can be spelled out unambiguously in the Koran and the Hadith…

SAM HARRIS: Yeah and I would add to that the biography of Muhammad.... What is ISIS doing that Muhammad didn’t do or wouldn’t have approved of? ... And the example of Muhammad is, as just an exemplar of the faith, is - doesn’t square very well with modern, cosmopolitan, secular, tolerant values. He was not a hippy who got crucified… He was a warlord who did many of the things that you see members of ISIS doing and that’s why they can kind of paint by numbers and justify what they’re doing with a very literalist, and as Maajid would say, a vacuous reading of Islamic theology. And that’s a very inconvenient fact which we have to confront head on and find some way to disavow the intolerant readings of these passages in scripture. 

MAAJID NAWAZ:  It’s incorrect for we, as Muslims and generally, actually, I’d say, those on the left of centre in this debate, to insist that Islamists and jihadists have nothing to do with Islam. That’s actually an exercise in dishonesty. Of course they have something to do with Islam… As Sam correctly mentioned, there are passages that they can resort to. So they have a plausible reading of scripture. The challenge, and this is more a plea that I make here on your show to my fellow Muslims in Australia and that is that we, as Muslims, have a task ahead of us, a monumentous task ahead of us and that is to begin the process of adapting, of reinterpreting our scriptures for the modern day and age… Unfortunately, many Muslims today, instead of rising to that challenge are incredibly defensive when it comes to this.

Okay, that's progress. Now we're talking about the real problem i.e. terrorists have a "plausible" reading of scripture. 

We've got past the obstinate denials of Obama i.e. "No religion is responsible for terrorism — people are responsible for violence and terrorism".

And now the burning question is: can it actually be done? Can Muhammad be rooted out of Islam?

Call me skeptical...