A leading professor and expert on Islam has warned that the religion is “not sustainable” in its current form and called for more critical thinking.
Ednan Aslan, 57, a professor for Islamic religious education at the University of Vienna in Austria and a frequent guest on German-language TV shows, said that in Islam too little is being questioned and too much simply taken for granted.
He warned: “Islam, as it is now, is not sustainable,” and said he wanted to “reshape the face” of his religion.
Aslan said that Islam is “out of touch with the present” in the way it is currently taught.
The Islamic expert is currently developing a curriculum for a new “Islamic Theology” course, in which he said he does not want to “inhale and breathe Islamic doctrine, but to question it”.
Aslan said: “We want to reshape the face of Islam. It is important that Islam is given a new face in order to be able to remain viable.
“Currently, Islam is unfortunately a religion of isolation. A religion of migration. A religion of Turkey, of Saudi Arabia. But no religion of Europe, which advocates pluralism or prepares children accordingly for a plural society.”
The professor said that the way Muslim communities are depicted is often inaccurate. “Take the school books of the Muslim religious community of Austria. Muslim women are always depicted with a headscarf. But in Austria, only 20 percent of Muslim women wear a headscarf,” he said.
“Why do we base the image of Muslims on these women with headscarves? It is these organisations which shape our image of Islam, but they are just a small section of it.”
Aslan argues that the most important prerequisite for religious education - and for education in general - is that the children need to learn to think.
He said: “This means that the children do not accept anything that is conveyed in the name of religion. They should also be able to question theological, religious content. Everything else is not a healthy religiosity.
“What does a youth in Vienna learn when he reads how many camels, sheep, goats he has to give for Islamic charity tax? Or whether the Prophet has eaten grasshoppers or not?
“This is in a school book in the 21st century in Vienna. In this way, the children do not learn to reflect, but only learn how to accept the given rules.”
Aslan called for everyone to see European freedom as an opportunity to lead debates on how Islam is taught.
He said: “Unfortunately, this is not possible in Islamic countries. They simply cannot lead this debate in Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia. Democracy is an invention of the Enlightenment.
“And as long as there is no democracy in the Islamic countries, and we do not have the freedom to ask questions, nothing will change. If you cannot ask the President, how should you ask the Prophet?”