Islam's Future

A very good overview of modernist Islamic theology from Reza Aslan, whom I consider to the best authority on the subject (at least English speaking). He talks with Jack Miles, author of God: A Biography. Aslan's book, which I always recommend is no god but God: History, Evolution, and Future of Islam.

Aslan covers a whole host of issues.

e.g.
--Sunni and Shia Islam
--Khomenism and Wahabism--watch his comparison between Khomenei and post-millenarian Christians like Pat Robertson (called Dominion Theology).

Aslan makes the argument that the real issue is not the battle so-called between the West and Islam but within Islam itself. He calls it the Islamic Reformation. Because as he rightly understands the real battle is the shift in who decides how to interpret the Quran/tradition.

Aslan correctly points out that he (an Islamic reformer) is actually in this regard in the same boat as bin Laden. Both men are arguing, a la Luther, that the authority resides with the individual and not clerical religious establishments. The internet then paralleling Luther and the Reformers absolute need for the printing press.

Hirshi Ali is condemning what exists now in Islam--the evils, the subjugation of women, the anti-Semitism, etc. Aslan is laying out what the future of Islam will be.