The Qur'an Problem and Islamism: Reflections of a Dissident Muslim

Salim Mansur’s The Qur'an Problem and Islamism is about religion and politics, about Muslims and Islam, and the internal debate within the world of Islam about Islamic reform and what it entails. The author discusses the difference between Islam, as a world religion within the Abrahamic tradition of monotheism, and Islamism, as a political ideology and a theology of jihad, and how historically Islam as a religion was turned into the ideology of Islamism, or political Islam. The sacred text of Islam is the Qur'an, and the challenge of any text lies in how it is read, understood, and practiced. The Qur'an problem has been right from the outset of Islamic history following the demise of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, in how to read, understand, interpret, and apply the meaning of the Qur'an in the lives of Muslims, and how this Qur'an problem remains the source of violence among Muslims at the present time as it has been in the past. It is the contention of the author that any reform of Islam that will assist Muslims reconcile with the modern world of science and democracy, and contribute to peace among them and with the rest of the world, must begin with a positive resolution of the Qur'an problem.