In the Islamica Magazine, that aquavirvs introduced me to, I found the following statement: "Islam is one of a handful of topics in the English speaking world for which expertise or knowledge is not a prerequisite for voicing one’s opinion." (http://www.islamicamagazine.com/about-islamica.html). Well, judging from some posts here, Christianity - even religion in general - is on a good way to join Islam.

I do suggest that anybody who have an interest in this area of international events read the comments and the factural history of His Majesty SOLTAN QEUMARS SHAH QAJAR, King of Persia at http://www.persiaworldnews.com/ as he is living in exile in Nth Qld north of Cairns and prevented from leaving Australia by the Commonwealth Govt.

Religion provides those people with a sense of direction and purpose in there life whether god, Allah, buddha or the myriad of other gods in our mind exists or not and that is a good thing for the world.

But no one should force, persuade or market there beliefs onto other people with the intent to convert.

We should demand of our peers, family and community, some action to stop religion stealing the choice away from week minded people and more importantly cutting it up along geographical, ethnic, political or racial lines.

The world is a small place now and we all need to move on to the next stage of human existence rather than kill each other over beliefs.

'...but only because our Christian reformation brought us back to the fundamentals of "Salvation...'

No it didn't David. It released us not only from the dominance of the Catholics but also from the dominance of the fundamentalist tales of the Bible. The Reformation coupled with the renaissance allowed us westerners to have a balance. A balance between the extremes of a blind faith and of the dominance of a godless logic. The fundamentalist extreme still exists in the faith of the Hebrews and the Muslims. And it appears some Westerners who would still have us believe the Bible is the only way to interact with and intrepret the will of our God...Gods.

Wooaah there Unimportant... that last sentence, -one word in it that I find mildly unsettling. You included 'persuasion' as one of your NO-NO's regarding people passing on their faith.

I have to disagree.

The ONLY real valid means of passing on ones faith is by persuasion.
We proclaim, with a view to persuading. We present truth, that it might be believed.

I agree with Goodthief that we must also respect.There are socially acceptable means of interacting with a view to persuading. (Like OLO :)

But this topic is about Islam's renaissance.
Amir said:

1/
"voluntary exodus of Muslim intellectuals to the West. From an inhospitable environment of political tyranny and ideological oppression"

2/
As a result, the migrant Muslim intellectuals are now producing a new genre of publications, many of which are questioning centuries-old interpretations of the primary texts in Islam.

COMMENT:
There are only 2 possible approaches to interpreting holy texts.
a) The 'wrong' one.
b) The 'right' one.
I say this on the grounds of normal interpretation of any document, such as this post I'm doing now. In any 'interpretation' one needs to take into account 'Statements/commands/suggestions/concessions/parables/analogies,cultural idiosyncracies' etc

Jesus "if your right hand sins, cut it off" aah.. INTEPRETATION needed here, based on context and 'cultural mode' of speaking. i.e. not 'literal'.
Then "40 days" did not always mean exactly, it meant 'a long time'.

For example, the first commandment.

2 I am the LORD your God, (Statement) ......who brought you out of the land of Egypt(Qualifiying statement), ...
3 you shall have no other gods before me. (Command/prohibition)
4 You shall not make for yourself an image, (Command/prohibition)

Islam has others.

Surah 23:5-6 (paraphrase) a man can have sex with his wife(s) AND his captured slave girls. (Statement/allowance)
Surah 33:50 "Mohammad alone" can have 'any believing woman' as his wife (temporary or permanent) but ordinary believers cannot.

Statement/Allowance. There is no interpretive genius needed.

So, the ultimate problem of a 'wrong' or dodgy/convenient interpretation of Islamic foundation documents is that those with the zeal and power may countermand such dodgy interpetrations to all our detriment.

I should think the Bible and the Qur'an are but start points. It is up to the individual to decide to what degree he or she will observe their religious commandments and how they are interpreted for a 21st century world. Any religious or non religious person can understand the value of the ten commandments for society. Although Judeo-Christian in writing, such words, such laws are not foreign to Islam or Muslim upbringing.
I don't agree that Islams renaissance, if any, will come from the west. I think given time those Islamic countries that are solely dependent on oil/gas revenues for their existence, will soon with the advent and mass production of biofuels loose the religious extremist nature and open up their governing model to include the intellectuals, the creators and invest in developing a middle class for their own national survival. Not even a democratic and open society can survive long with out a middle class. Having near destroyed the middle class over the last 30 years Australia, Canada, Great Britain and the United States are now realising that a disparate gulf between the rich and poor makes for bad economic realities. So too will those Islamic countries that have imprisoned their intellects and creators in the name of religious fundamentalism or countries like France who crippled their economic structure in the name of socialism. Not that I'm equating the two beyond the observable economic comparisons between France and say Iran.
Those Islamic countries first to expand their economic infrastructure will have the easiest transition and be the impetus for real honest reformation. The world looses a great deal when 1/6 of it's population is not contributing as it could to the creative and intellectual benefit of the world due to the restrictions of religion and closed societies.