Irshad Manji examines the dilemma young progressive Muslims face between standing up for their beliefs and conforming to a more conservative Islam out of loyalty to their families:
Now for the irony. Moderate Muslims are ignoring this frustration while Salafis are eagerly tapping into it. Hard-core Islamists open the doors of inquiry, usher the vulnerable through and then extinguish the very curiosity that attracted their recruits. They achieve this by providing “safe” spaces in which Muslims who feel suffocated by their own can question conventional teachings, especially those of mainstream imams whose smug feudalism oozes the warning: do as you’re told. Tribalism to a T.
Moderate Muslims fail to appreciate at least two realities. One: at a time when youth are constantly engaging their minds to navigate the ocean of information flowing through the Web, it’s humiliating to be told you can’t think for yourself. Two: in our era of mass migration, young Muslims have more questions than ever. I draw strength from the most common remark sent to me through my Web site these days—“Can we, as Muslims, marry non-Muslims?” A hot 21st-century issue, interfaith love is helping to drive a new school of Islamic jurisprudence that reinterprets theology for Muslim minorities in the multicultural West.
Reinterpretation will be painfully messy because it demands excising tribal tradition from the practice of Islam. It’s not just Salafis who confuse culture with faith. Seemingly integrated Muslims do, too. I remain amazed at how often Muslim-American students whisper to me what is, in fact, an open secret: that they can’t voice their support for progressive Islam because they would be accused of “dishonoring” their communities.
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