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   Johan Aslim on April 23, 2013 at 8:03 pm

   In his conversation with the Halal Monk (see: http://www.halalmonk.com/abdal-hakim-murad-authority-within-islam) Abdal Hakim Murad also goes deeper into the idea of the ‘crisis’ of the Islamic world, which, according to him does not really exist. Like he says: “The merit of the decentered model is to be seen in the fact that in spite of the talk of ‘the crisis of Islam’ or ‘what went wrong with Islam’ many mosques are still crowded until overflowing. Despite the decrepitude of the structures, the collapse of traditional Islamic education in many places, people still want Islam. I therefore don’t accept there is a crisis of Islam. Actually, I think Islam is the great religious success story of modernity. Ultimately you judge a religion and the validity of its truth claims on the basis of whether it is still appealing to people or not. And people keep converting to Islam.

   The Islamic leadership, however, isn’t at all ready to assume a new position. Their discourse, theology or vision of history isn’t prepared for it. They are still in their nawazil mode of “what’s the latest headline and how do we panic next?” The cartoons, Israel, terror, … it’s all boiling, but the reality on the ground is that something is in fact working.”

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