Of Kagan, I had previously thought, ‘at least she’s not as bad as nearly any other progressive hopeful Obamageddon might choose to visit on us’. That was beforel I read several posts on redstate recently.

Sharia is a pox on modernity and civilization itself and if Kagan is predisposed either in favor of, or simply indifferent to, the dangers of Sharia, a pox on her house as well.

The only salvation for Islam in the long run is a robust reformation as was experienced by Christianity some centuries ago. What reformation has done for Christians is to peel away the stranglehold that the religion had held over the body politic of the nation state, allowing nascent nations to breath, to move ahead, and in short, to modernize. It also served to blunt the literal readings of some older passages in the Bible as well as some in the New Testament that have been too often acted on via historical misinterpretation. For example, Revelations looks with great fear and consternation at the world of the first century, mostly because of threats from the Roman ‘s attempted extermination of early Christians. Commonly thought to be written by the Apostle John, these were very real dangers then, but they are too often today generalized to apply to modern scenarios of which there are an abundance. But Revelations was not written for the 20th or 21st centuries, unless you are a literalist who is willing to apply those time-specific “warnings” through projection. Without the redemption of reformation, those old tracts remain relevant because they are given literal currency as the ?word of god?s will.? Post-reformation, and especially via modern archeology and other sciences, Revelations slowly began to be seen in context as histories, not as prophesies that could be pegged to any crisis down through the ages. Not as Apostle John as Nostradamus.

If Islam can successfuly achieve reformation, its literal readings by its fundamentalists, particularly terrorists, will be seen as the historic narratives they were designed to be.

Islam needs a reformation before Sharia in its more toxic modern forms can be dispelled; before a two-state solution can take effect in Israel; before Muslim countries can join the global community of nations as anything other than super-sized, rogue irritants. A study a few years ago clearly showed that the majority of global “troubles” occur at the interface of Islam and its neighbors. And this is so all over the world. In other words, stop the toxin leaking out from the terrorist applications of Sharia, and you staunch most of the skirmishes plaguing the planet. This is to some degree true irregardless of terrorists, as the irritant is just as often mainstream Islam itself even in its moderate forms, and it occurs because Islam has yet to walk through the cleansing fires of reformation.

Sharia is but the latest expression of the absence of reformation.

I?ve often wondered, in this context, why Judaism, which to my knowledge has never had a reformation per se, has retained its sanity as a global religion. I suspect it has to do with the fact that it does not proselytize, like Buddhism, and has never been a global power. Those two elements are related. If you fail to push your religion aggressively upon your neighbors, you remain relatively powerless; without that power you have no need to dominate your neighbors and all the unsavory behavors that come along with conquest and dominance.

In any regard, if this disinterest of the dangers of Sharia Law is to any degree true of Kagan, then her naivete is a big problem, though I hope that she will come to abandon her naive ways. But we know full well that extreme ideologues rarely shed their skins.

And just an FYI: Having traveled extensively by foot in the Mideast, North Africa, and down the largely Muslim east coast of Africa, I do not blame the people of Islam for Islam?s problems. They are a fine and legendarily hospitable people, and the legend is true to a fault. And we can see that most Muslims who immigrate here experience success and are ready for modernity. They are a cultured people long readied for modernity. Conversely, we see that because of their familial and cultural insularity, the children of Islamic immigrants are too often attracted to the thrill of terrorism, despite the enhanced lifestyle they have enjoyed here and in Europe.

It?s reformation or bust for Islam. If you believe, as I do, that the symptoms of a reformation include a prolonged period of violent and anti-social behaviors, as we are witnessing throughout the Islamic world, it is my great hope that it is precisely that reformation that we are experiencing right now. And while reformation’s symptoms are ugly and unsettling, we know from our own experience that ultimately they are enlightening and pave the way for a better future.