With an estimated 1.5 billion followers, Islam has been described as the world’s fastest growing religion.
But differences over interpretation of the scriptures have existed since the earliest days of Islam. Some have been based on a highly selective interpretation of the scriptures with demands that Muslims adopt the most conservative rules of conduct while other interpretations have been more liberal.
But since the middle of the 20th century it is a conservative Salafi/Wahhabi interpretation of Islam, a political ideology known as political Islam or Islamism, that has gained the ascendancy world-wide.
Conflating religious belief and political control, Islamism is nothing new, first appearing in the eighth century in support of the Arab conquests of North Africa and the Middle East, and reappearing from time to time ever since throughout history.
Islamism goes far beyond Allah’s revelation in the Qur’an, and is based on a highly selective reading of the scriptures, having little or no historical or theological validity. It is out of step with internationally accepted standards of human rights, freedom, equality, and democracy, and with what science has taught us since the seventh century about the world and ourselves: all overwhelming evidence of the need for reform.
Our case is against Islamism, not Islam.
We support the right of every individual: believers and non-believers alike, to exercise their faith in peace, and to the right to freedom of expression that falls short of incitement to hatred or violence.
But over the past decades we have gradually been losing those rights as the Islamists have succeeded in imposing their totalitarian ideology on nations around the world. Funded with more than 100 billion dollars by Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich states, it is now estimated that some 90% of the world’s mosques, madrassas and Islamic centres are under the control of Islamism.
Dear Reader
Much of what you will read in these pages may run counter to what you have been taught about Islam, its history and tenets; but it is based on millions of words of research by hundreds of the world’s leading Islamic scholars, spanning more than a hundred years, carried out independently of financial support and constraint from the great centres of Islamic power.
This work is factual.
We call upon the world to reject Islamism and to return to the benign, liberal Islam of our ancestors as revealed by Allah: to guidance not compulsion, and to peace not violence.
Who Are We?
The international Organisation for Islamic Reform is an informal network of liberal Muslims concerned by the growth of Islamism: an intolerant, aggressive interpretation of our faith that over the past decades has come to dominate the Islamic world.
The Case Against Islamism represents the ideals and aspirations of millions of peace-loving, tolerant and faithful Muslims around the world. It has been compiled by some of the world’s leading Islamic scholars: historians, scientists, theologians, philosophers and political scientists, united in their understanding that political Islam, Islamism, is a deeply flawed ideology, and dedicated to the defeat of Islamism in favour of a more liberal, tolerant interpretation of our faith.