No doubt if we elimated all religion the athiest would then be free to live a guiltless perverse selfish life. The only problem is that in their selfishness they would self destruct. Thank God for sending Jesus whose life, words and actions have and will never be able to be matched.Thank God He is able to open the eyes of the blind.

How ironic that the turbidity of Islamic thought is only capable of achieving transcendentness if its intellectuals do their free thinking in the West. May we examine one of those ‘intellectuals’ who is now riding the wave of Islamic intellectualism now sweeping the world? Let’s use Tariq Ramadan as the apotheosis of a muslim intellectual. Mr Ramadan is at best a Janus-faced faux-syncretist. He is a promoter of the ‘three great Abrahamic faiths’ yet talks about the future of European Islam. Maybe he has an eye on that day when Islam will control head office. It was Mr Ramadan who succeeded in stopping Voltaire’s Mahomet because the play insulted the prophet. I wonder whether Mr Ramadan was insulted by ‘The Life of Brian’? It is also muslim intellectual Tariq Ramadan who has called for a moratorium on the ‘uplifting’ Islamic custom of stoning women who commit adultery. Wouldn’t an Islamic intellectual such as Mr Ramadan insist on a total ban? Mr Ramadan, why not be guided by the beliefs of two of the ‘three great Abrahamic faiths’ and ban the practice? Is lapidation a bedrock of Islamic faith? If it is please hasten that promised Islamic renaissance.

Mr Ramadan is also critical of the West’s rampant consumerism but when it suits he turns a blind eye to that matter. Mr Ramadan was prepared to accept a stint at a USA Catholic university in spite of McDonald’s heiress, Joan Kroc providing a handsome endowment to that same university. Nothing symbolizes rampant consumerism more than those golden arches. Mr Ramadan is uncomfortable with intellectuals from the West who dare to criticize Islam. He says their views are not in keeping with the lofty ideals of liberalism. So much for robust debate and free thought.

Islam is a strange organization. Allegedly it has 1.4 billion adherents who espouse love, fellowship, comity and much more yet it has not produced its own Mother Teresa

Go for it, Runner, as John Locke would say, the compassion of Jesus, the Nazarene, along with the reason, helps show the way for the Divine purpose of humanity.

Very interesting article. I wonder whether there will be parallels between religious developments in Islaam with the history of Christianity. The rivalry between different varieties of Islaam (Shia and Sunni for example) seems analgous to Protestantism and the Roman Catholic warfares that resulted in long bloody wars. The rise of the higher criticism in the 19th century which began to look at the Bible as literature and the controversies about the nature of Jesus sound like the kinds of new thought in Islaam reported by Ameer in this article. Two observations, if analalogies are useful. (1)Christianity is not homogenous and uniformly rational. Apparently there are still many "fundamentalists" who reject the modern interpretations of the scriptural texts, and they seem to be very strong in USA politics. (2) there seems to be ebb and flow of religious fervour, with religious revivals from time to time. So, if the parallels continue we can expect much intra faith conflict, large numbers committed to the old interpretations - maintained by the status quo of power and privilege, and periodic ups and downs of intensity of belief. But, let us do whatever we can to support rationality and moderation.

I would have thought that the expression,"Islamic Rationalism" was a bit of an oxymoron.

For the sake of humanity, when are people going to get over this infantile belief in religion?

I laughed when I saw the phrase "to rekindle the spirit of intellectual rationalism" in connection with Islam which is surely the most retrograde of the monotheistic religions.

Religions in general are not rational, and Islam is probably the most irrational of all.

It is now the 21st century, and we are still having discussions about something which really belongs to a time when people knew very little about the world.

Leave it back in the 7th century, please?