Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now by Ayaan Hirsi Ali Page B

encouragement of religious reform is being given by the government of the United Arab Emirates.
    It is, of course, conventional to argue that el-Sisi’s election as president was a symptom of the failure of the Arab Spring. But that is to misunderstand the process unleashed by the revolutions that began in Tunisia in late 2010. The revolutions there, as well as in Egypt, Libya, and Syria, were directed against corrupt dictators; they were then hijacked by Medina Muslims such as the Muslim Brotherhood, whom the dictators had long held in check. When that became clear to Egyptians—especially city-dwellers—they took to the streets once again to oust the Brotherhood government of Mohamed Morsi.
    As a challenge to authority—as a revolution against dictators who had once seemed immovable and all-powerful—the Arab Spring was actually a success. It showed that the mighty could be challenged. When another form of authority—religious authority—sought to exploit the opening, there was a second revolution, at least in Egypt (and civil wars in other countries). Eventually, I believe, refusal to submit to the authority of secular rulers will be followed by a more general refusal to submit to the authority of the imam, the mullah, the ayatollah, the ulema.
    The ferment we see in the Muslim world today is not solely due to despotic political systems. It is not solely due to failing economies and the poverty they breed. Rather, it is due to Islam itself and the incompatibility of certain key facets of the Muslim faith with modernity . That is why the most important conflict in the world today is between those who will defend to the death those incompatibilities and those who are prepared to challenge them—not to overthrow Islam, but to reform it.
    The initial work of challenging authority has already begun—tragically exemplified by the note written by the son of the newly elected Iranian president shortly before his suicide in 1992: “I hate your government, your lies, your corruption, your religion, your double acts and your hypocrisy.” 14 Yet a Reformation cannot be achieved by suicide notes. Like Luther’s Reformation, it needs theses: calls for action.
    Five Theses
    What does one do with a timeworn but historically valuable house? One approach is simply to knock it over and build a new house in its stead. This is not going to happen with Islam, or any other established religion. A second approach is to preserve the place exactly as it was when first built, unstable and in danger of total collapse though it is. This is essentially the thing that groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Qaeda, and IS agree on: a restoration of the seventh-century original.
    The third choice is to keep as much as possible of the historic details, make the outside look a lot like the original, but change the house radically from the inside, equipping it with the latest amenities. That is the kind of Reformation or Modification I favor. Extending the metaphor, another term for what I have in mind might be an Islamic Renovation.
    I am no Luther. Nor do I have ninety-five theses to nail upon a door. In fact, I have only five. They refer to the five basic tenets of the Islamic faith that those who preach jihad and destruction use with such lethal success. Amending them will, I know, be exceedingly difficult. But for Islam to coexist with modernity, for Islamic states to coexist with other nations on our ever-shrinking planet, and especially for tens of millions of believing Muslims to flourish in Western societies, these five concepts must be amended. Reason and conscience demand it. These changes, I believe, can be the basis of a true Islamic Reformation, one that progresses to the twenty-first century rather than regresses to the seventh.
    Some of these changes may strike readers as too fundamental to Islamic belief to be feasible. But like the partition walls or superfluous stairways that a successful renovation removes, they can in fact