In follow up to the WSJ piece I linked to earlier today on the Christian Left, here’s a bit on the Muslim Left from Ali Eteraz, who has written a series of pieces on Islamic Reform in the Guardian. He writes:
I recommend creating a viable and well organised Muslim left. It would be an intra-religious movement as opposed to a universalist one (though obviously it doesn’t shun allies). It would be a cousin of the international left, but in a Muslim garb. Just as the Muslim right found Islamic means to justify the destructive ideas from the enlightenment (Fascism, Marxism, totalitarianism, evangelical religion), the Muslim left should find Islamic means to justify the positive ones (anti-foundationalism, pragmatism, autonomy, tolerance) …
Muslim leftism is the only thing that will assure that Islam’s individualist revolution doesn’t take an even darker turn than it already has. Some in the Muslim right like to insist that they are moderate and ready for pluralism. That might be a bit of wishful thinking. Without a potent Muslim left, the right will not have an adequate check, nor any incentive to make accommodations. This is because political systems that rest on religious supremacism rarely make compromises. We know this from America. We know it from the third world as well. After more than two decades the Iranian right has failed to move significantly towards the centre. If unchallenged, better should not be expected from the Egyptian, Pakistani, or Gulf nations equivalents.
I find Eteraz’s call for a liberal version of Islam to counter the standard right is better founded than those who use liberal religion in American politics. This is because in the countries he mentions, Islam is actually the official state religion, whereas America is (at least according to the Constitution) a secular nation.
