Well I can take the word of some Neville Nobody on an internet forum, whose only supporting evidence is more of their own Neville Nobody posts,
Actually, my supporting evidence was an academic article in the scholarly journal
Islamic Law and Society, and a rather detailed post which shows just how laughable your statement that Reilly has "probably forgotten more about Islam and its history than the combined intelligentsia on this forum know".
or I can take the word of some of the planet's leading analysts of Islam...
You could, but it seems you haven't.
He's hardly a "leading analyst of Islam". He's a
conspiraloon writing for, shocker of shockers, Daniel Pipes' pet Islam-hating project. Nobody outside of the Sean Hannity crowd takes him seriously.
You don't even cite this to a
person, much less a "leading analyst of Islam", just to some right-wing thinktank as a whole. A Google search returned nothing but the equally-anonymous publisher blurbs for the book at sellers like Amazon.
"Barry Cooper, a fourth generation Albertan, was educated at Shawnigan Lake School, the University of British Columbia and Duke University, where he received his doctorate in 1969. He taught at Bishop's University, McGill, and York University before coming to the University of Calgary in 1981. For the past twenty-five years he has studied western political philosophy, both classical and contemporary. Much of his teaching has focused on Greek political philosophy whereas his publications have been chiefly in the area of contemporary French and German political philosophy. Over the years he has spent considerable time in both countries, teaching and doing research. Cooper's other area of continuing interest has been Canadian politics and public policy. Here he has brought the insights of political philosophers to bear on contemporary issues, including the place of technology and the media in Canada, the on-going debate over the constitutional status of Quebec, and the precarious status of Canadian defence and security."
And it's posted at a site "dedicated to the renewal of classical political thought as exemplified in its contemporary form by the writings of"
this guy, best known these days as the source of the catchphrase "Don't immanentize the eschaton!"
This is one of "the planet's leading analysts of Islam"? You have some rather eclectic criteria.
Hey, finally someone who's an actual academic who has written reasonably well received books on a relevant subject, though a professor of international relations rather than a scholar of Islam. And the quote you cite has nothing to do with Reilly - it's from a book published two years before his was.
Again, with the generic link. At the very least you could have linked
directly to his article. And, as with Dr. Tibi's quote, it has nothing whatsoever to do with Reilly's book. And he's not an "analyst of Islam", but an Indian Muslim reformer who in that article is actually criticising the various revivalist movements of the last few centuries (particularly the 20th-Century Islamism of Sayyid Qutb, Abul Ala Maududi, and Amin Ahsan Islahi), which he argues have held Islam back.
Ironically, his particular ideas for the "reinvention of the Muslim mind" are exactly the sort of thing metacristi has ruled impossible; the full context of the quote you cite reads (with emphasis added) "Those eager to make a new beginning must accept beforehand that the traditional mind will lead them to nowhere. A new Muslim mind is the minimum to start with. Without reactivating our brains we would even fall short of realising in full the nature and magnitude of our malaise.
The Quranic exhortations to look, think, reflect and visualise (nazar, tafakkur, ta’aqqul and tadabbur) can empower us with a confident and enlightened mind which may accede to the fact that the 21st century issues have not been settled by the fuqaha of the past and the eternal light of revelation can guide us the same way as it did the great fuqaha of the past."
I know who I choose to listen to!
Yes, I see that.
