“It might come as a surprise to many, but the truth is that Islam today no longer has a living and evolving theology. In fact, with few exceptions, Islam’s last genuine theologians belong to the early part of the 19th century. Go to any mosque anywhere, whether it is in New York or Mecca, and you are more likely to hear a political sermon rather than a theological reflection. In the highly politicized version of Islam promoted by Da’esh, al Qaeda, the Khomeinists in Iran, the Taliban in Afghanistan and Boko Haram in Nigeria, God plays a cameo role at best. Deprived of its theological moorings, today’s Islam is a wayward vessel under the captaincy of ambitious adventurers leading it into sectarian feuds, wars and terrorism. Many, especially Muslims in Europe and North America, use it as a shibboleth defining identity and even ethnicity. A glance at Islam’s history in the past 200 years highlights the rapid fading of theologians. Today, Western scholars speak of Wahhabism as if that meant a theological school. In truth, Muhammad Abdul-Wahhabi was a political figure. His supposedly theological writings consist of nine pages denouncing worship at shrines of saints. Nineteenth-century “reformers” such as Jamaleddin Assadabadi and Rashid Rada were also more interested in politics than theology. The late Ayatollah Khomeini, sometimes regarded as a theologian, was in fact a politician wearing clerical costume. His grandson has collected more than 100,000 pages of his writings and speeches and poetry. Of these, only 11 pages, commenting on the first and shortest verse of the Koran, could be regarded as dabbling in theology, albeit not with great success.”

—  Amir Taheri

"The mad dream of a dead empire that unites Islamic rebels" http://nypost.com/2014/06/14/the-mad-dream-of-a-dead-empire-that-unites-islamic-rebels/, New York Post (June 14, 2014).
New York Post

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "It might come as a surprise to many, but the truth is that Islam today no longer has a living and evolving theology. In…" by Amir Taheri?
Amir Taheri photo
Amir Taheri 85
Iranian journalist 1942

Related quotes

Amir Taheri photo
James Mattis photo
Koenraad Elst photo

“In the Islamic world many places of worship belonging to the earlier religion have been converted to mosques.”

Koenraad Elst (1959) orientalist, writer

M. Shokoohy: “Two fire temples converted to mosques in central Iran”, Papers in Honour of Professor Mary Boyce, EJ. Brill, Leiden 1985, p.546.
Source: 2000s, Ayodhya: The Case Against the Temple (2002)

V.S. Naipaul photo
Glenn Beck photo

“Reformed rabbis are generally political in nature. It's almost like Islam, radicalized Islam in a way, to where it is just — radicalized Islam is less about religion than it is about politics. When you look at the Reform Judaism, it is more about politics.”

Glenn Beck (1964) U.S. talk radio and television host

2011-02-22
The Glenn Beck Program
Premiere Radio Network
Jeremy
Schulman
Glenn Beck Smears 35 Percent Of American Jews
Media Matters for America
http://mediamatters.org/blog/201102220038
2011-02-28
2010s, 2011

C.G. Jung photo

“We do not know whether Hitler is going to found a new Islam. (He is already on the way; he is like Mohammed. The emotion in Germany is Islamic; warlike and Islamic. They are all drunk with a wild god.)”

C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology

The Symbolic Life — in The Collected Works: The Symbolic Life. Miscellaneous Writings (1977), p. 281

Amir Taheri photo
Maajid Nawaz photo

“Islamism is not Islam. Islamism is the politicisation of Islam, the desire to impose a version of this ancient faith over society.”

Maajid Nawaz (1977) British activist

'I watched a man stabbed in a London street - and felt nothing' http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2331021/I-watched-man-stabbed-London-street--felt-nothing.html (25 May, 2013)

Bill Maher photo

“The sad fact about the mosque is the people who are building that mosque are part of the Sufi fringe moderate part of their religion. That's the good part. That's the liberal part. Those are the Hippies of the Islamic world.”

Bill Maher (1956) American stand-up comedian

Larry King Live interview (2010)
Context: The sad fact about the mosque is the people who are building that mosque are part of the Sufi fringe moderate part of their religion. That's the good part. That's the liberal part. Those are the Hippies of the Islamic world. We should encourage them. The people who want to build that mosque, those are the people we should be courting. Bush used that guy. Bush — that administration sent him overseas. Yes, that's the way to fight terrorism. That's the way to win the war, is to get those people on our side, not to alienate them. … I mean, the biggest population of Muslims in the world is Indonesia. They're not crazy. The second biggest is India. There's 150 million Muslims in India. They're not crazy. …But Saudi Arabia, they're crazy. The Taliban in Afghanistan, they're crazy. Parts of Pakistan are crazy. Hamas is crazy. There's enough of them to worry about.

Related topics