Rushdie Haunted by his unholy Ghosts — Page 37
37 C H A P T E R SI X : PL A NS T O R E C O NS T R U C T MUS L I M T HO U GH T Going back to the reconstruction of Muslim thought in colonial India, what the West had tried before was to give the Muslim liberal scholars of that era a free rein in expressing their ways and means of ‘Westernising’ Islam so that it could be accepted almost as a Muslim apology to the West. Furthermore, what the West cannot deny is their backing to this conniving plan of the reconstruction of Muslim thought. Even Dr. Michael Nazir Ali admits to this in his book, Islam -A Christian Perspective : ‘Turning from the Middle East to India, we find that there Islamic modernism began not as a reaction to European influence but almost under its tutelage. ’ (p. 107). Despite all their efforts and their backing of the plan to liberalise Islam, which had a very hopeful beginning, the plan failed miser- ably. The major reason may be that liberalism remained the concern of a westernised elite and never succeeded in making any inroads into the ranks of the Ulema (clergy). Another major factor could be, as Dr. Ali admits, that: ‘Muslim liberalism of this period was addressed mainly to the European mind. Herein lies one of the causes of its failure within the world of Islam. ’ (p. 139). So the West was in a dilemma. This plan of theirs to reconstruct the Muslim thought had almost worked by firstly using their own orientalists, who in a beguiling fashion used their wizardry with the pen to praise the Holy Prophet(sa) on the one hand, and then crucify him on the other. This was aimed more at the Western world to deter them from appreciating Islam and its beauty, as they were genuinely concerned that people were entering the fold of Islam in their thousands.