In the west many get information about Islam basically from fundamentalists and rather conservative sources. This is why we find it important to show another side of this religion.
One of the best examples we have found is this four-part series on Faith and Reason, Islam and Fundamentalism by Nasr Farghali. These articles were published in Islamist Gate between 10th of December 2013 and 1st of April 2014, and later transferred to Albawaba News. In Islamist Gate, Nasr Farghali was presented this way: "Nasser Farghali is an Egyptian writer, columnist, newsman, award-winning film-maker, and award-winning poet"
Farghali's first article is named The Neo-Fundamentalism and it opens with this powerful statement: "As Slovenian marxist philosopher Slavoj Zizek claimed on one of his most famous lectures that 'Only an atheist can be a true Christian', Naser Farghali will embark in this series of articles on making a similar argument: only a secularist can be a true Muslim fundamentalist".
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Reconciling Faith and Reason
is the second article which discuss if faith and reason is antagonism, or as Farghali claim, two parts united in Islam. He state the following towards the end of this article: "Muhammad, as we shall see, would make what Soren Kierkegaard called the 'Leap of Faith' with some significant help from a woman, his wife Khadija, and a Christian, his wife’s relative Waraqa. The first believers in the duration of Muhammad’s life would make their choice between Kierkegaard’s Leap of Faith and some form of Pascal’s famous wager".
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Third article is Divine and Human In Islam
, and here Farghali writes: "In its cradle, Islam constituted a full-scale revolution par excellence. It announced the end of an old order based on hierarchical tribal values, replacing it with a whole new order based on equality, social justice and religious freedom. It comes as no surprise that the first believers were mainly the youths and the underprivileged. Whether a woman or a slave, a young man or a marginalized intellectual, they all combined to form Islam’s first line of defense and its driving force at the same time".
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Islam: Time To Reform
is the last article in this serial. The article start with a quote attributed to Pope Francis of Vatican, and end as this: "On the 28th of January 2011, young revolutionaries, spontaneously formed rows of prayer to hold their grounds in the face of heavy-handed security forces on Qasr-El-Nil Bridge in Cairo. It was a moment of the true essence of Islam manifesting itself as an emancipatory energy, not caring the least about formal rules of prayer rows; they stood side by side, male and female, Muslims and non-Muslims, praying for freedom".
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In the introduction to The Muslim500 2013/2014, S. Abdallah Schleifer give a great introduction to the contemporary situation in the muslim world. It provide a great overview to what happened during the time islamists where in power in Egypt, and what the situation was after the end of this period.
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We will add more articles related to the topic, later - but we will only add articles that make a difference!