agha Masoud. This is a good idea. One of the reasons that christianity is still the mainstream religion is due to the fact that it at least attempts to reform and keep up with the times. Islam is a difficult one though. Many of the countries with Islam as the main state religion are third world countries with very low literacy levels. I think its not unfair to say Islam has become by default the religion of the poor and uneducated. Its my opinion that educating the populace will go a long way to achieving the objectives you mentioned in your post. Otherwise some of the changes will be extremely hard to implement.
oh look who is here?!
Good to 30 u here Pezhman jan! How is the family and your lovely children?! hope all is well over there. its good to hear from u after loooong time.
As much as think there is no reforming the Islamic Republic, I think Islam itself needs to be reformed – the sooner the better.
Also, as much I think orgamized religions (all of them) are an obstacle between humans and whatever "God" is - I must admit, these religions are here for now and we must deal with them in a civilized manor.
The way I see it – Islamic clergies have long declared Islam a taboo over and beyond any debates or reforms, making any such suggestions impossible and punishable by death (as being at war with god). Now that we have the internet, I hope we can break this taboo, at least in the cyber space – in hopes to come up with certain aspects of Islam that must be reformed – in hopes that soon Islam will find it’s own version of Martin Luther.
Hence, I especially encourage participation of members who posses extensive knowledge on Islam and Islamic Rules to participate in this thread. Please note that my goal here is not to re-write the Qoran – but change and/or reform Islamic laws that are practiced but are not actually in the book or are in the book but open to interpretation.
Masoud jan,
With all due respect, your suggestions will only cause huge bankruptcy for Islam and Clerics. Hence thats why it cant be implemented. Here is why!:
Here are a few of my suggestions:
1- Do away with the “Unwritten Law” that a Moslem may not change religion.
If that takes place, number of muslim population will dramatically decrease(either converting to other religions or no religion at all). hence their profit goes down.
2- Make 18 the official age for marriage.
Really?! you mean clerics and their followers have to wait 18 yrs to sigheh/marry a girl?! and if they dont abide, they can legally be charged for "raping"?! Thats impossible!
3- Give equal rights to men and women on all aspects of social and judicial laws.
The day a muslim woman can marry a foreign,non-muslim man by choice, gets a divorce by choice, gets a room without her father/husband's permission,and can marry 4 men, with 40 bfs, at the same time(just like men), its End of the World, if not Islam!
4- Revise Namaz to a more practical format – at least in Iran, nobody prays, and when people break the most fundamental aspect of a religion, they would have an easy time to break all other rules.
The whole point of Namaz is "repetition creates reality". When one repeats those lines 5 times everyday, from morning to night, it will always remain in their mind..If they dont repeat it 5 times, they'll forget about "Mohammad, Islam",etc.
5- Do away with Haj or change the rituals and locations.
The whole point of Haj is to show unity and population of muslims. Thats the whole point of emphasis on "Namaz jamat", Mecca,etc. so it cant be done in diff locations with diff rituals. and really when one 30, two million other ppl throwing stone at a grave, he doesnt think he is crazy doing that..if 2 million ppl do that every year, so it should be "normal"?!!
6- Do away with all sorts of Islamic Taxes – and make supporting the mosques totally voluntarily.
Ouch! Islam and clerics without "Zakat" go bankrupt. Just eyewitness and count $, Gold, valuable Carpets religious ppl donate at Jamkaran, mosques, every day. Its a billion $ business. and without it, there is no treasury board to bail out Islam/clerics!!
