A "renaissance"...

You'd think it the ideal thing... a rebirth of ideas and understanding among Muslims across the world, finding the restrictive and out-dated mindsets of their forefathers for exactly what they are, and realizing the necessity of embracing a more compassionate view of the world and the people in it.

The thing is, I'm not sure it will ever happen.

Islam is a closed faith... no further revelation can or will ever be made, and no alternate interpretation of the words of the Prophet can ever be made, since any change in view equals apostasy... by the very words of the Prophet himself.

Judaism is still looking for its final "messiah" to come and bring light into their world, and in the meantime, they have nearly 3,500 years of wisdom and reflection in their scriptures to contemplate and study. It is a faith that doesn't look for converts, but stresses the need to propagate its members through strong family bonds that stretch across oceans (and centuries).

Christianity has seen its penultimate event... the Incarnation. God has come to earth as Man, has shared his pain and suffering, accepted the sins of the world on His shoulders, died and risen again. He has told us how to live, what to look for in life, and how to look at ourselves and others as He looks at us... and while we can expect no more "revelations" from God, our understanding of Him and His divine Will can be studied, pondered and contemplated for eons to come without ever running out of Mysteries. Every study leads to understanding in Christianity... but none of it is NEW, it is only better understood. Conversion is welcome in Christianity... but it cannot come at the point of a sword, or it is the worst sort of sin. It must come from the heart, and it must always be voluntary and sincere.

Sins have been committed in the name of both Christianity and Judaism... just as they have been committed in the name of Islam... but what many people seem to have forgotten in this day and age is that much of the violence and brutality that we see on the news footage as being perpetrated by "radicals" in the Islamic world is a verbatim understanding of what is written in the Qu'ran, and no actual criticism or denial of this understanding can be given, through word or action, by a practicing Muslim for fear of being labeled an apostate.

When someone blows up clinics or shoots abortion doctors in the name of Jesus Christ... I can stand up and loudly and proudly declare that this is NOT what Christ told us to do. When someone shoots an Israeli Prime Minister for talking peace with a Palestinian, Jews across the world declared that Yaweh loves the peace maker, and spurns the murderer. But when someone straps 25 pounds of explosives to their chest and detonates it on a crowded bus or in a subway car in the name of Allah the Merciful... even the most peace-loving practicing Muslim cannot condemn the act, because to do so would be to say that the words of the Prophet as read in the Qu'ran are in error, or that the understanding of those words in incomplete. Yes, they can call for an end to such actions in the future, and they can stress the peaceful nature of the Islamic faith, but they cannot say that the person following the words of the Qu'ran can be wrong... or they are declaring the entire faith wrong.

Those Muslims that reside in or hail from the Dar el Islam (or the House of Islam, nations where Islamic law rules) will not listen to the words of reason that might stem from those of us living in the Dar el Harb (or the House of War, nations where Islamic law does not rule)... because we do not embrace the final revelation of Allah, and thus do not understand God's will as Muslims do. Those Muslims that come from non-Muslim states (Detroit, for example, or London) aren't considered to be equal to those coming from the Dar el Islam... Muslims though they may be. So, when imams from the US or UK tell the world that they do not support terrorism in the name of Islam, they are not heard as we hear them in Saudi Arabia. They are harbi, just like all Americans or Brits... only a little closer to Allah that you and I (as Christians).

I think Ryan is right, of course... but I think the prospect of a renaissance within Islam is far from likely. What we can hope for is that the people living under such rule as we have seen in Iran, Taliban Afghanistan, Indonesia, Sudan and even Saudi Arabia and Kuwait will tire of being denied so much of what the rest of the world has come to see as inherent in their natural rights and freedoms.