Egypt's president opened the new year with a dramatic call for a "revolution" in Islam to reform interpretations of the faith entrenched for hundreds of years, which he said have made the Muslim world a source of "destruction" and pitted it against the rest of the world.
The speech was Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi's boldest effort yet to position himself as a modernizer of Islam. His professed goal is to purge the religion of extremist ideas of intolerance and violence that fuel groups like al-Qaida and the Islamic State — and that appear to have motivated Wednesday's attack in Paris on a French satirical newspaper that killed 12 people.
But those looking for the "Muslim Martin Luther" bringing a radical Reformation of Islam may be overreaching — and making a false comparison to begin with. El-Sissi is clearly seeking to impose change through the state, using government religious institutions like the 1,000-year-old al-Azhar, one of the most eminent centers of Sunni Muslim thought and teaching.
[TOP RATED COMMENT] .... the world would be better off without Islam. Geert Wilders is 100 percent correct with his criticism along with Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Orianna Fallaci, Salmun Rushdie, Robert Spencer, Theo Van Gogh, Geert Wilders, Wafa Sultan.
[ANOTHER] .... this is the overwhelming problem with religion in general, not specifically Islam. .... Christianty is not the cure for Islam. Religion is never the cure for religion. Education...and only education...is the cure for religion.
[ANOTHER] .... you're so right! The world would be better off without Islam.....and Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism ......etc. Then we would have some crucial obstacles removed in our quest in becoming rational human beings and clear critical thinkers.
[ANOTHER] A critical problem with Islam is that it has a multitude of rules to control every aspect of society. In contrast, Christianity has this: "Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God." That is, it accepts a fully secular rule. [The Huffington Post] Read more
