In my own opinion I think that the only way to change the Islamic world is to challenge small taboos with in the Islamic world.
I hope to get your opinion on this topic.
Subscription Note:
Choosing to subscribe to this topic will automatically register you for email notifications for comments and updates on this thread.
Email notifications will be sent out daily by default unless specified otherwise on your account which you can edit by going to your userpage here and clicking on the subscriptions tab.
For instance after the Egyptian revolution people voted for the Muslim brotherhood.
And I think that will keep on happening until we change the people.
I don't feel comfortable suggesting how citizens in authoritarian countries should challenge "small" taboos, given that I have no experience of such countries and given that my own life is not at stake (i.e. I have no "skin in the game").
Reforming more moderate (I use moderate in a relative sense) countries such as Tunisia, Turkey, Indonesia... first may be a better way to gradually reform Islam. My advice would actually be that it would be better for citizens living in more extreme countries to move to more moderate ones, if possible. Although that would deprive the economy of such countries: that could either make things even worse, or lead to reform. I think ultimately we can make speculations about the long term future of a country, but each individual firstly has to do what is in their own self-interest.
Democratization is ideally the mechanism for reform, but advocating for it in an authoritarian regime could of course come at great cost to yourself.
First reforming Islam maybe will work for a small amount of time but almost every time Islam keep going back to it core. Again look at Egypt at the 70s they were more open minded even you can see sex scenes in movies which now would be an acceptable.
Second point is the west won't be able to take the amount of people needed to effect the economy of those countries. And I don't the west would even take more refugees.
And even if the people started leaving the people in those countries won't change much if at all. And we would be end up with more religious people in those countries.(I know I shouldn't blame the people for leaving they want the best for them and their families)
My wholly and honest opinion is to NEVER do anything that will endanger one's own life.
This WWW site is a good method. Just need more like this one. That way, any who are curious enough, and can hide their WWW tracks such as through a VPN behind a Proxy would be best. Online anonymous browsing services would also help.
Otherwise, as Sapporo said, getting more "moderate" Islamic nations to slowly change would be a method.
First and Foremost is to NEVER endanger one's own life. I cannot stress nor repeat that enough.
rmfr
VPN is the name of the game.
But to be serious I kind feel deep down, it will never change in a 100 years time
I just posted this in your other thread but I'll post it here too.
I think in your situation you could maybe try to talk about different interpretations of the quran that offer greater fairness to people but don't tell anyone you disagree with islam itself.
I heard about one woman from Saudi who is in hiding in Europe because she became an atheist. Her own brother wants to kill her.
The honour system is a whole crazy world. To be honest I personally struggle with this one it was the hardest part to go against even now I feel the influence on me. It a thing that just you been groomed to do.
Similar things happened in Turkey after world war one. Attaturk led his country into a secular age.Less than a century later 'small issues' like women wearing headscarves led the way back to Islamic influences taking over the country's politics once more.
We, outside Islamic countries, can't influence much if anything against a well fortified religion like Islam. And as for us, opinions of atheists are worth less than shit in such places.
It's up to the citizens of each to decide their own fate.
Agreed seed.
Although scientific validation that the supernatural aspects of islamic faith are impossible, may help in this situation.
To explain more on the honour system I will give the example of myself and my oldest brother. My father work in the oil industry as a worker so he will work for three weeks and come home of two. So since women can provide for the family in Saudi Arabia rather for not having the ability to drive( Saudi Arabia doesn't have any way of public transportation) so me and my oldest brother have to me the "men in the house" and if we did anything against being the "man in the house". My father wouldn't be forgiven at all. So you have this feeling that you must be "man in the house".(it like being pouched to force the rules or else)
My oldest brother would face the worse and I mean the worse(I had it a little better myself). And I could see him turning into a monster to protect himself.
I'm really having a problem with the website.
It's kewl dude...the mods will likely fix that for you.
Trade and investment.
Once people get a taste of higher incomes and better lifestyles, the old ways start to crumble. It's happened all through Asia. South Asia, including Pakistan and India, is the next frontier. The oil-rich slave states will be a harder nut to crack, but even they will need modern industries as oil is replaced by cheaper, cleaner forms of energy.
Modern industries require modern education, which further weakens the failed religious dogmas. A lot of that training is provided by large corporations in the form of in-house training, exposing local people to all sorts of new ideas.
And unlike the lazy oil-fat Islamobigots who rule suck-it-up-and-ship-it-out economies like Saudi Arabia, multinationals can't afford the reputational damage that occurs when people discover child labor and slavery in their supply chains, in part because socially responsible investment (SRI) funds have become a major force in global stock markets.