Article - WSJ on Islam and Peace

Islam Needs to Prove It's a Religion of Peace in WSJ

Tawfiq Hamid (a former member of an Islamist terrorist group, is an Islamic reformer and senior fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies) calls on Islamic scholars to stop teaching about violent practices in Islam and to speak out against traditional practices with no place in this world.

He argues that..."we [Muslims] must blame the leading Islamic scholars for having failed to produce an authoritative book on Islamic jurisprudence that is accepted in the Islamic world and unambiguously rejects these violent teachings."

He reminds us that stoning of women exists in the old testament and in the Sunna (Islamic tradition), the difference being that Jewish scholars have spoken out successfully against the practice, discontinued long ago, while Muslims have not.

WHY won't many Muslims give up these traditions? I think one answer is, broadly speaking, that they feel under threat - that their religion is under threat by local dictators and international actors. This pressure - be it real or perceived - must be relieved.