Ninth Website Assignment

Ninth Website Assignment

Over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, liberal Muslims have tended to reinterpret and reapply many aspects of their religion in accordance with their increasingly modern societies and outlooks on one hand and re-examining there traditions; this is particularly true of Muslims who now find themselves living in non-Muslim countries. But, this had been already underway by the 19th century.

Such people may describe themselves variously as liberal, progressive or reformist; but rather than implying a specific agenda, these terms tend to incorporate a broad spectrum of views which contest medievalist interpretations of Islam in many different ways. (Bullock, 1990)

Judged by this special characterization of Islamic fundamen­talism, Ibn 'Abd Al-Wahhab, the religious founder of Saudi Arabia, was a paragon of Muslim fundamen­talist leaders. Here are some of the salient features of his fundamentalism. (Al-Shaykh, 1988) If the Christian fundamentalists were so-called because they laid down their main beliefs in tracts called The Fundamentals , 'Abd Al-Wahhab's movement deserves that name in view of the fact that the word 'fundamental' appears in many of his influential tracts. He spent most of his long life, from 1703 to 1792, concentrating on Islamic fundamentals: the fundamentals of faith, the method of obtaining religious knowledge, the necessity of establishing a strong state to propagate and defend the faith, and so on. (Al-Shaykh, 1988) He devoted his life to teaching those fundamentals, ex­plaining them, arguing for them, urging people to believe in and act on them, and rebutting objections to them.

Most liberal Muslims oppose slavery and the associated practice of sexual concubinage of slaves, which was not abolished during the time of Muhammad and is permitted in the Qur'an (although the Qur'an does discourage slavery to the point of elimination, which was in itself a progressive attitude at the time). ...