Just like Catholicism split as a result of the unpopularity of the church during the reformation period, so it looks like Sunni Islam is overdue for a split between strict constructionists and those who think the Koran is a living document.
Islam, meet Weslam. Your Western cousin.
Weslam allows apostacy.
Weslam allows moral and religious evolution.
Weslam defines jihad as purely spiritual.
Weslam accepts the existence of other religions of equal stature, the choice not to be religious and the rule of secular law.
Weslam prizes human life and the pursuit of knowledge, wherever they lead.
Weslam avoids gross inequalities between individuals of either sex and respects personal choices that do no harm to others.
Weslam allows your adult children to make their own choices about who they love and live with, and what they believe. And spousal choices belong entirely to adults.
Weslam admits no advantage of believers over infidels and seeks the friendship of all people regardless of their beliefs.
Weslam is not a political system. It is simply a religion.
Weslam is about belief in a God and faith that he believes in kindness to every person, above all.
Weslam leaves the future in the hands of God and does not pretend to know when or how the world will end.
Weslam protects the vulnerable and despises those who do them harm.
Weslam seeks to befriend its enemies, discourages resentment and forgets ancient wrongs.
Weslam is not a victim story but a constructive support for those who are searching for a hopeful pathway through life.
Weslam does not permit an older person to encourage a younger one towards violence.
Weslam does not require anyone to know where Mecca is because prayer is directed inwards in search of a higher wisdom and neither direction requires knowledge of geography.
Weslam provides raisins and not virgins in the afterlife to childless men, as sexual incentives involving the subjugation of women to a man's desire are not a holy purpose. Indeed, virgin subjugation is a perverse incentive that is abused by some to manipulate the innocent and this is unweslamic.
Weslam admits that right behaviour depends on time, circumstance and perspective and that thus we cannot merely depend upon a book that is situated in a particular time and in a particular place and amongst a particular people to provide the answers we need today. Breathe the air you live in. It is refreshing.
Weslam does not grant you access to certainty.
Otherwise, it is like Islam.
Go forth and multiply, Weslims. I am looking for the door of a mosque to nail this on.
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