Prominent Syrian writer Yassin al-Haj Saleh has highlighted importance of what he described as “real religious reform that believes in diversity, difference and freedom of belief and thought and re-introduces Social Islam that considers people’s livelihoods and the nation’s progress.”
Speaking from Istanbul via videoconference in a symposium hosted by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights on Tuesday, Saleh said that religion should be for all the society not for a specific group that claims being right and authorized to apply Sharia.
Saleh pointed to a religious crisis that prevail in most of the Islamic societies that is forming extremist Islamist groups.
The Syrian writer also highlighted another problem is that Islamists, despite believing in a religion of diversity and difference, they do not approve diversity, difference of peaceful coexistence, which stresses necessity to face them with the fact they believe in thoughts that do not relate to essence of Islam.
Saleh argued that countries with authoritarian regimes survive off of the persistent threat of Islamists, and without the constant conflict with them, they could not exist in their current form. “Salafis aim to create their own legitimacy amid disputes with the regime. Thus Islamists would succeed in showing their power and ability to control soul, mind and conscience of pious persons, so he does not give himself a chance to think how such ideas conform to Islam. What’s important to him is to obey God and his prophet through perspective of his sheikh or mufti, which is a real crisis. The pious person does not review his thoughts when a child is killed or bomb explodes killing civilians. He doesn’t care about value of humanity as much as standing for Islam,” Saleh added.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
