Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender and Pluralism by Omid Safi

speaking as contemporary Muslims to both Muslims and non-Muslims alike much more difficult.

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    So now we have some notion of what progressives are and are not. But precisely how is their version of talking different from other Muslim discourses? Let me offer a few key features.

    Beyond apologetics
    Here is a newsflash, courtesy of progressive Muslims: God is doing just fine. God doesn’t need any help. God doesn’t need any defenders. It is humanity that needs help, especially the oppressed, the downtrodden, the marginalized, and the all-but-forgotten who desperately need champions and advocates.
    I bring this up to underscore that being a progressive Muslim means self-consciously moving beyond apologetic presentations of Islam. Our apologism does God no good, and it solves none of our real problems. And it is no exaggeration to say that the overwhelming majority of writings that
    dominate Islamic centers fall into the realm of apologetics. Why do apologetic writings hold such appeal to religious folks, including Muslims?
    The past few years have been a challenging time for nearly all people of faith. For Muslims, this has meant an urgent imperative to define what we stand for and, just as importantly, what we reject. For Catholics, it has meant coming to terms with the catastrophic sexual abuses in the Church. For Jews and Hindus, it has meant confronting the brutal violence committed or tolerated by nation- states that claim to represent them. It has been a time of a great deal of vocal but vexing public conversation about all religions, including Islam.
    Part of the challenge is to recognize that there are many ways of talking about all religions, including Islam, in the public sphere. Two of them seem to have gained prominence in the post-9/11 world. One level is the normative, theological way, when self-designated (or selected) representatives speak with the weight of authority, and feel perfectly entitled to make statements like “Catholicism states. . .,” “Judaism teaches us that. . .,” and of course, “Islam states. . . .” The other way of talking about religion is more historical and descriptive, less theological, and more people centered. The followers of this perspective are likely to say, “This Jewish group practices the following ritual, while other Jewish groups practice otherwise. . .”; “These Muslim groups hold this interpretation of jihad , while their interpretations are opposed by the following groups. . .”
    I find myself increasingly on the side of the second way of talking. Regarding many issues, the majority of Muslim scholars have formed a clear enough consensus (ijma‘) to allow us to speak of near unanimity. On other issues – precisely those that many contemporary Muslims and non-Muslims would be interested in hearing about and debating – there has been and remains a wide range of interpretations and practices among Muslim scholars and within Muslim communities. Our task as progressive Muslims is to begin by honestly chronicling the spectrum of Muslim practices and interpretations for both ourselves and society at large. We cannot and should not single out only sublime examples that are likely to be palatable to a non-Muslim public, just as we would not want the xenophobes to focus exclusively on the fanatical fringe of Muslim societies. It is imperative for all of us to demonstrate the full spectrum of interpretations, particularly in dealing with the “difficult” issues (gender constructions, violence, pluralism, etc.).
    Furthermore, I find myself being less and less patient and satisfied with assertions that “Islam teaches us. . .” This seems to me to be an attempt to bypass the role of Muslims in articulating this thing called Islam. Let me be clear, and perhaps controversial here: “Islam” as such teaches us nothing. The Prophet Muhammad