Progressive Islam: Reawakening Authenticity

As a male person of Muslim background (Bosnian Muslim by birth) and as someone who came of age around the time of 9/11, I have sought ways to understand my faith that is affirmative of Goodness and Love as well as open to potential goodness and love in every human being. This search set me off on a journey that eventually had me embark upon a career in academia and come to dedicate much of it to the theorising of progressive Islam. The fruits of this labour of love include two books, the second of which, the Imperatives of Progressive Islam was published in early 2017. In no small measure was my journey inspired and influenced by the wonderful work done by Tikkun and the Network of Spiritual Progressives that I became acquainted with some ten years ago while researching on progressive Islam.

In this article, I will draw upon my previous scholarship to provide an overview of the worldview underpinning progressive Islam, its approach to conceptualising and interpreting the Islamic tradition, its theology and its normative imperatives. In doing so, I wish to present a less well known but no less authentic understanding of Islam that will hopefully challenge what many non-Muslims and Muslims think about what Islam was, is or can ever be.

Introduction and Overview:

Progressive Islam is an umbrella term covering approaches to the Islamic tradition and (late) modernity, which employ the words "progressive" or at times "critical" (e.g., the magazine Critical Muslim published in the United Kingdom) when labelling themselves or which fall into Progressive Islam as defined herein. The main theoreticians behind this contemporary Muslim thought are academics and public intellectuals from both Muslim majority and Muslim minority contexts and include scholars like Hassan Hanafi from Egypt; Enes Karic from Bosnia, Ali Ashghar Engineer from India; Nurkolich Majid from Indonesia, Sadiyya Shaikh, Ebrahim Moosa and Farid Esack from South Africa; Ziba Mir Hosseini and Mohsen Kadivar from Iran; Muhammad Abed Al-Jabiri from Morocco; Jasmine Zine from Canada; Hashim Kamali from Afghanistan/Malaysia; Kecia Ali from the United States; Abdulaziz Sachedina from Tanzania/USA; Abdullahi An'Naim for Sudan; Khalid Masud from Pakistan; and Khaled Abou El Fadl from Egypt/USA to name but prominent few. Importantly, progressive Muslim academics and intellectuals include a significant number of females. Progressive Muslim thought also has a global grassroots activist presence associated with Muslims for Progressive Values, Musawah, and like-minded movements.

In terms of its overall worldview, Progressive Islam is best characterized by its commitment and fidelity to certain ideals, values, practices, and objectives that are expressed in many ways and take form in a number of different themes. These themes primarily concern issues pertaining to progressive Muslims' critical positioning in relation to (1) the hegemonic economic, political, social, and cultural forces from the Global North, (2) hegemonic patriarchal, exclusivist, and ethically ossified interpretations of their own inherited Islamic tradition, and (3) the values underpinning both Enlightenment modernity as well as radical forms of postmodern thought. This critique, therefore, simultaneously challenges both (neo-)traditional and puritan Islamic hegemonic discourses on many issues (including the debates on modernity, human rights, gender equality and justice, democracy, and the place and role of religion in society and politics) and their Western-centric conceptualizations and interpretations, embedded as they are in the values, world-view, and assumptions underpinning the Enlightenment.

One of the main concepts permeating progressive Muslim thought is the centrality of spirituality and the nurturing of interpersonal relationships based on Sufi-like ethico-moral philosophy. By this I mean an intellectualised form of Sufism that exists without the accompanying misogynist and highly hierarchical elements present in much of the pre-modern Sufi tradition. Moreover, progressive Muslims emphasise God's universal nature and the universality of the faith itself through demonstrating God's concern for humanity in general which as, I will outline below, leads to them to embracing religious pluralism.

Cultivating and strengthening the multifaceted and dynamic aspects of the inherited Islamic tradition and resisting its reductionism and exclusivist interpretation founded on patriarchy, misogyny, and religious bigotry is an...