Understanding Freedom of Speech

Spirogyra

Reading a book on the History of 'sex' and the Christian Church, not literally the act of sex, but relations between men and women, prostitution, contraception, collective responsibility for individual morality, punishment by God etc It's as though, as has been said before, Islam has never gone through the Enlightenment or reformation. Christianity, has strong puritanical movements, quite similar to Islamic State and Saudi Arabia today. But gradually Reason and Rationality lead to questioning and a dilution of such ideologies. It's as though this has just not happened in Islam, anywhere really.

Tom Dunne

Spirogyra wrote: »

It's as though this has just not happened in Islam, anywhere really.

I don't think it's as though it hasn't happened, it hasn't happened.

And here's why I think so - the Pope.

The cohesion the Pope brought to Europe was responsible for generally consistent observation of the faith across the region. I would think that when the Enlightenment occurred and rational thought, science and so on became more credible, the ideas it fostered spread more easily because of this cohesion.

However in the Islamic world, there is no one central authority, interpretation of religious scriptures is handled on a more regional level. Throw in the political aspect of post-colonialism and the fact that a lot of countries in the Arab region are either dictatorships or theocracies that limit freedom of speech under the auspices of national security, you see again why the seeds of enlightenment are not being sown.

Spirogyra

Reading the book further, the Islamic world seems, as you allude Tom, just like Christendom 3-500 years ago, very similar ethos...will Islam ever have it's enlightenment?

Tom Dunne

Spirogyra wrote: »

will Islam ever have it's enlightenment?

Living here in the Middle East, I see change. Slowly, but surely, things are changing.

Will it be an enlightenment as was seen in Europe and Catholicism? I'm not so sure. Will it take a generation or two? I think so. It's not going to happen any time soon, but over the next 50-100 years.