Interesting article in the LA Weekly:
www.laweekly.com/general/features/an-american-muslim/15329/"Over the last 30 years of American Islamic life, Hathout and his anti-hierarchical sentiments have butted heads with a renewed conservatism that took hold of the world’s Muslims during the financial rise of the oil monarchy in Saudi Arabia and its ultratraditional Wahhabi math-hab (school) of Islam...Hathout is trying to counter foreign interference into Islam in the U.S. by emphasizing its American side, and by stressing that Saudi Wahhabists are no more qualified than American Muslims to speak on Islamic issues.""
Again a defender of islam wishes us to believe that a single leader represents a broad "islamic renaissance," while also believing that world-wide violence is perpetrated by a radical minority. The article provided above does not even suggest such. I have added emphasis.
"Over the last 30 years of American Islamic life, Hathout and his anti-hierarchical sentiments have butted heads with a renewed conservatism that
took hold of the world’s Muslims during the financial rise of the oil monarchy in Saudi Arabia and its
ultratraditional Wahhabi math-hab (school) of Islam...Hathout is trying to counter foreign interference into Islam in the U.S. by emphasizing its American side, and by stressing that Saudi Wahhabists are no more qualified than American Muslims to speak on Islamic issues."
The words that I have highlighted do undermine, any insistence, that jihadist and their sympathizers are a minority that have no tradition in islam.
"Renewed conservatism" is itself an interesting phrase. Renaissance does mean rebirth. So it becomes important when, again, discussing a rebirth of islam to ask, what is the nature of the thing being reborn? When Hathout's MPAC website extols the supposed virtues of mo', then one should consider if the groom of the six year old Ayesha had any virtue.
Admittedly, Hathout does have much better credentials for passing himself off as a moderate than richbrout's "Uncovered Meat" sheik.
attackmachine.proboards56.com/index.cgi?board=world&action=display&thread=1168470460&page=2#1171063838 But, I do not believe he has the same idea of what a reformer should be, as might we?
“In his [Hathout’s] view the reformists, represented by leaders like Jamaluddin Afghani, Muhammad Abdu, Mohammad Iqbal, Hassan al-Banna and Maududi, Ghannoushi, Erbakan and Turabi, have advocated a pluralistic society that would work for peace and justice for all. They have, however, according to Dr. Hathout, been ignored, despite the fact that ‘they represent the masses and speak their language."
counterterror.typepad.com/the_counterterrorism_blog/2005/08/the_muslim_brot.htmlThat is quite a list. A who's who among the rise of modern terror groups.
"He [Muhammad Abdu] was a student of Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, a philosopher and religious reformer who advocated Pan-Islamism to resist European colonialism."
"Abduh's theory of Salafism would be modified by Hassan al Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_AbduhThat is the same Muslim Brotherhood that killed Anwar Sadat and includes such notable members as Ayman al-Zawahiri.
"[Mohammad] Iqbal asserted that secularism as a guiding principle for government was a mistake and must be abandoned by the Muslim polity."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_IqbalMaududi "the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami (The Islamic Party)."
"The primary concept that he propounded was Iqamat-i-Din, literally "the establishment of religion." According to this principle, the society and the state are totally subordinate to the authority of Islamic law as revealed in the Qur'an and practiced by Prophet Muhammad."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MaududiGhannoushi
"The claim that political Islam is in its last throes, which has gained currency in academic, political and media circles since it was first put forward by Olivier Roy in the 1990s, looks today more implausible than ever."
www.wussu.com/current/ghannoushi.htm"Erbakan was fundamentalist in religious belief and was not a mainstream politician though he had been well-known, especially as an ingenious politician. Erbakan feels that science and history prove that Islam is the only salvation for humanity. He alleges that the West is being ruled by a "racist Imperialism, i.e. the Zionism". The latter, he claims, had been created 5765 years ago by a "book of magic called the Kabbala."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necmettin_ErbakanTurabi
"Turabi granted Bin Laden a safe and friendly haven from which to conduct jihadist activities; in return, Bin Laden agreed to help the Sudanese government in roadbuilding and to fight animist and Christian separatists in Southern Sudan. "
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turabi