An interesting article in PJ Media by Roger L. Simon reporting on a speech by Egypt's President, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. In it, he called for a 'religious revolution' inside Islam - so no surprise there, you might think, until that is, you actually read his words:
It’s inconceivable that the thinking that we hold most sacred should cause the entire umma [Islamic world] to be a source of anxiety, danger, killing and destruction for the rest of the world.
That thinking—I am not saying “religion” but “thinking”—that corpus of texts and ideas that we have sacralized over the years, to the point that departing from them has become almost impossible, is antagonizing the entire world. It’s antagonizing the entire world!
Is it possible that 1.6 billion people [Muslims] should want to kill the rest of the world’s inhabitants—that is 7 billion—so that they themselves may live? Impossible!
I am saying these words here at Al Azhar, before this assembly of scholars and ulema—Allah Almighty be witness to your truth on Judgment Day concerning that which I’m talking about now.
All this that I am telling you, you cannot feel it if you remain trapped within this mindset. You need to step outside of yourselves to be able to observe it and reflect on it from a more enlightened perspective.
I say and repeat again that we are in need of a religious revolution. You, imams, are responsible before Allah. The entire world, I say it again, the entire world is waiting for your next move… because this umma is being torn, it is being destroyed, it is being lost—and it is being lost by our own hands.
Now it's true that al-Sisi is one man but even so he is president of one of the most powerful Muslim states. I doubt that he spoke like that of his own accord, he would have sought advice from inside the Egyptian government and army. There is a tendency in the west to lump all Muslims together and that, I think, is a mistake. Our governments need to be very watchful and pick up the nuances in 21st century Muslim thinking. The loonies of ISIL capture the headlines but I do not think they express the wishes of all, or even a majority, of the Islamic world.