At Talk Islam, a great discussion has ensured (as tends to happen over there) about analogizing between Islam and other religions, especially when talking about “reformations” or about labels. Abu Noor points out,

those both within and without Islam that call for “reformation” are not
really calling at all for anything like the Protestant reformation of
Christianity but are in fact calling for a Reform Islam movement that
would resemble Reform Judaism.

He also proposes the term “Orthodox Muslim” as a better label for those muslims attempting to engage in such a process. The debate turns to the fact that Jews can also be thought of as an ethnic group in addition to a religious one, whereas thats not the case for muslims in the US (though in one sense it is a good approximation for muslims in Europe, on a country by country basis).

More from Beliefnet and our partners