Some may say that attempting to reform Islam and make it compatible with civilisation is a fruitless and impossible task. Others who are more optimistic than I am, point to the reforms in Judaism and Christianity and how these reforms must have appeared impossible to those who were alive when reformist convulsions were happening. However, what cannot be denied is that reforming Islam has a lethality about it that was not present during the reforms of Judaism in the19^th century and Islamic reformers face similar sorts of religious violence to that which accompanied the Christian reformation centuries before. However for Islam the situation is far more volatile. Christianity, even though some Christians have been personally violent, is not a faith built on a doctrine of bloodshed and conquest which is something that plainly describes the ideology of Islam.

To get an idea of how difficult it is to reform an ideology that was built on bloodshed just look at the situation in Germany. In that country a reformist mosque was set up where men and women prayed side by side, where sectarian differences were put to one side and also where the violence in the Koran and other Islamic scriptures was rejected. The result of this brave, but possibly vain attempt to reform has been criticism from the Turkish religious affairs agency who have influence over many of the Turkish dominated mosques in Germany. Unfortunately I don’t think that this criticism will stay ‘verbal’ and I predict that sooner or later this liberal mosque will end up being subjected to some form of physical attack.

A report published by a German website called thelocal.de described the harsh criticism that the new liberal place of worshipm the Ibn Ruschd-Goethe mosque.

The Local said:

Turkey’s religious affairs agency has expressed distaste over a new mosque in Berlin where men and women mingle freely, saying it was incompatible with the principles of Islam.

Supporters of the  Ibn Ruschd-Goethe mosque said it would allow liberal Muslims to worship freely but in a tough statement Diyanet took a different stance.

It said that the mosque “neglects” the basic principles of Islam and was “incompatible with the worship, knowledge and methodology” accumulated since the faith was founded by the Prophet Mohammed 14 centuries ago.

“It is clear that this has been a project carried out for many years by FETO and other ill-gotten structures for the engineering of religion,” it added.

“We are convinced that all fellow believers will keep their distance from such provocations and show wisdom in the face of this,” Diyanet said in the statement published late Tuesday.

If I was one of the Islamic reformers of Berlin then I’d start to worry about the security of those running this liberal mosque, those attending and their premises. Because this involves Islam the bloodthirsty death cult, I doubt therefore that any expression of displeasure by more orthodox Muslims will be limited to words. Reform Muslims such as those who run the Ibn Ruschd-Goethe mosque are in for a long hard slog in their quest to reform an ideology that many people consider to be unreformable due to the vile and violent nature of Islamic scripture. I wish these reformers well but I can’t help but wonder just how many of the congregation or the organisers will be alive and professing reform Islam in five years time, or whether more orthodox Muslims will, as has happened before, murder the reformers?

Some say that reforming Islam is like trying to polish a turd and is a thankless and fruitless task. However I must say fair play to these reformers for at least having a go at making the uncivilised ideology of Islam that little bit more suitable to be among civilised people in civilised nations.