Reformation

There has been a great deal of rhetoric lately about the need for a reformation of Islam to rid us of the so-called "radical Islam" that is largely responsible for worldwide terror. Not only is Radical Islam responsible for rampant terror, it is also responsible for the new holocaust of Christians unlucky enough to be living in the lands where Radical Islam is in total control. I think this rhetoric about Islamic Reformation has currency because the Reformation of Christianity was so successful, and so it follows that a similar reformation of Islam would produce the same positive result.

Not so, say I.

The Christian reformation was enabled, in large part, by the invention of the printing press. The printing press not only put the unedited Holy Bible in citizen's hands, the start of the Industrial revolution also enabled a new middle class to form and become enlightened. The Holy Bible was not changed by the printing press; it was made available to the masses unchanged. And so, the Biblical message of Jesus riding an ass while waving palm leaves instead of a sword, and preaching a gospel of Love and Peace, was made manifest to all who would read and understand.

The impossibility of a likewise reformation of Islam is so because the Holy Koran is now available to all who would avail themselves, and that Holy Koran would have to be changed to enable a reformation. That is to say, all that is happening in the name of Islam today is clearly authorized by the Holy Koran as it is written today. So it follows that in order to reform Islam, the Holy Koran would be required to change or added to as it stands today. This in itself is not impossible because the Holy Koran is so constructed that whatever is written last will supersede all that was previously written and at odds with that which is written later.

In my opinion, changing the Holy Koran to reform Islam will never happen today, tomorrow or ever.