Maajid Nawaz has a rather beautiful mini-statement (all right all right it’s a tweet) from yesterday:
I am a free Muslim. My prophet left no heir. My faith was never ruled by pope nor clergy. For my sins I answer to God alone. You are not God
Wouldn’t it be fantastic if there were more free Muslims (and free Christians, free Hindus, free Mormons…)?
That version of faith/religion still has the problem that the nature of the sins depends on the concept of “God” – but that’s true of any concept of morality. Taking heirs and popes and clergy out of the equation makes it much easier to avoid identifying your god with bits of dogma left over from the days before the invention of birth control.
Yes, beautiful. And a POWerful reminder to some.
The Buddhists started well, “gods” were irrelevant, however many seem to have lost the plot in the last 2500 years.
I like that statement very much. Powerful, I agree.
That’s a very dignified tweet from Nawaz. (Odd, that a tweet can be dignified). It strikes the Protestant dissenting note – the voice of individualism, which is part of the voice of liberalism.