http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1123760947200&call_pageid=968256290204&col=968350116795
Excerpt:
"Traditional Islam is a broad church that certainly includes millions of
tolerant, civilized men and women. But it also encompasses many whose views
on women's rights are antediluvian, who think of homosexuality as ungodly,
who have little time for real freedom of expression, who routinely express
anti-Semitic views, and who, in the case of the Muslim diaspora, are - it
has to be said - in many ways at odds with the (Christian, Hindu,
non-believing or Jewish) cultures among which they live.
In Leeds, from which several of the London bombers came, many traditional
Muslims lead lives apart, inward-turned lives of near-segregation from the
wider population.
From such defensive, separated worlds some youngsters have indefensibly
stepped across a moral line and taken up their lethal rucksacks.
The deeper alienations that lead to terrorism may have their roots in these
young men's objections to events in Iraq or elsewhere. But the closed
communities of some traditional Western Muslims are places in which young
men's alienations can easily deepen.
What is needed is a move beyond tradition - nothing less than a reform
movement to bring the core concepts of Islam into the modern age, a Muslim
Reformation to combat not only the jihadi ideologues but also the dusty,
stifling seminaries of the traditionalists, throwing open the windows of the
closed communities to let in much-needed fresh air."
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