Waleed Al-Husseini founded the Council of Ex-Muslims of France. He escaped the Palestinian Authority after torture and imprisonment in Palestine to Jordan and then France. He is an ex-Muslim and atheist. Waleed Al-Husseini founded the Council of Ex-Muslims of France.
There were some issues in the recent history of France. I reached out to Al-Husseini to get a secular perspective on the issue.
Al-Husseini spoke on the fundamentalism as a problem in the headlines. But there is also peripheral, but important, issues around miniskirts. He notes this within the context of the world of social media too.
In the Computer Age, there is, in fact, a problem of bad news making the cut and then travelling through the hotwires of the world faster than other news. The miniskirt moment was one such news item within the French sphere.
Al-Husseini stated, “Every time, you will find something: summer coming soon and so there will be people discussing the issues around the Burkini. You will continue to see these headlines that make it seem like the Dark Ages.”
There are Muslim leaders who would prefer an internal-to-Islam, doctrines and practices, change or reformation. Al-Husseini views this as a problem. In that, many Muslims simply may not want the change. Some individual Muslims would simply prefer to learn fundamentalist forms of Sharia.
“That is why even in this time it’s impossible for reform in Islam. Now, it’s like in reform Nazism, in their time when they have the power. Islam has the power, and the religion has connections and money. So, it is impossible. Maybe later they can!” Al-Husseini said.
He talked about the time of a “revolution of light” with the time of the muʿtazilah. He saw this as a wonderful thing for every one of the time. In that, the Quran was simply viewed as a historical document and nothing more than this.
Now, the problem is that the Quran is viewed as a document for every time
and place. But some in the ex-Muslim community can be part of the movement of the reformers.
“We are the reason of making many Muslims use the term moderate because of us because they just don’t accept to kill us! We know more from the inside. Most of us know the Quran through its original language in Arabic, which is the strongest translation of the Quran!” Al Husseini exclaimed, “And we know the ways of them and will never be in these traps and we showed and explained this, we can be part of a united Muslim from who really want to help against the fundamentalists.”
It was this note of a move to modernity and a modern interpretation of a faith within a naturalistic and moderated framework that can be the basis for the work of some Muslims and some ex-Muslims working together.
Image Credit: Waleed Al-Husseini.