ABSTRACT
Medieval Muslim civilization excelled and today's Muslims lag behind in nearly every index of achievement. Muslims impressed with Western achievements sought to minimize Shari'a and replace it with Western ways in such areas as the nonestablishment of religion and equality of rights for women and non-Muslims. Reformist Muslims must do better than their medieval predecessors and ground their interpretation in both scripture and the sensibilities of the age. When a reformed, modern Islam emerges it will no longer endorse unequal female rights, the dhimmi status, jihad, or suicide terrorism, nor will it require the death penalty for adultery, breaches of family honor, blasphemy, and apostasy. For anti-Islamist Muslims, the great burden is to develop not just an alternative vision to the Islamist one but an alternative movement to Islamism. Non-Muslims should support moderate and Westernizing anti-Islamists.
