Lessons from the Protestant Reformation for Today’s Islamic World

Authors

  • Hussein Solomon Centre for Gender and Africa Studies at the University of the Free State
  • Rene de Klerk Department of Political Studies and Governance, University of the Free State

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15575/ijik.v13i2.25503

Keywords:

Protestant Reformation, Muslim, Islam, Martin Luther, Religious Extremism

Abstract

The Muslim world is in crisis – politically, socially and economically – and Islam is in need of a reformation. Drawing on insights from the Protestant Reformation, this article argues that two of the major reasons for the success of the Protestant Reformation lay in the fact that dissident voices such as that of Martin Luther were protected and that developments like the printing press increased literacy thereby empowering ordinary people to read the Bible on their own without the Church serving as a mediator in conveying revelation to the masses. This helped to break the monopoly of the Catholic Church. At the same time, the printing press allowed the views of reformers to be disseminated to a wider audience creating widespread sympathies for the reformers given the excesses of the Church. Whilst the Muslim world shares many objective realities of the period leading to Europe’s Reformation, the reality is that reformers are provided with little protection from Muslim political elites and widespread illiteracy prevents reformist ideas from gaining traction to a wider audience.

Author Biographies

Hussein Solomon, Centre for Gender and Africa Studies at the University of the Free State

Prof Hussein Solomon, is located at the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies, University of the Free State. His research interests include political Islam, gender in the Arab world, and terrorism. His most recent books include African Security in the Anthropocene (with Jude Cocodia, Springer, 2023), Directions in International Terrorism: Theories, Trends and Trajectories (Palgrave, 2021), Terrorism in Africa: New Trends and Frontiers (with Glen Segell and Sergey Kostelyanets, Institute for African Studies, Moscow, 2021), Arab MENA Countries: Vulnerabilities and Constraints Against Democracy on the Eve of the Global COVID-19 Crisis (with Arno Tausch, Springer 2021), Exporting Global Jihad (with Tom Smith, IB Tauris/Bloomsbury 2020), Islamism, Crisis and Democratization: Implications of the World Values Survey for the Muslim World (with Arno Tausch, Springer, 2020), African Security in the Twenty-First Century: Challenges and Opportunities (with Stephen Emerson, Manchester University Press, 2018), Understanding Boko Haram and Insurgency in Africa (with Jim Hentz, Routledge, 2017), Islamic State and the Coming Global Confrontation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism in Africa: Fighting Insurgency from Al Shabaab, Ansar Dine and Boko Haram (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015) and Jihad: A South African Perspective (Sun Media, 2013).

Rene de Klerk, Department of Political Studies and Governance, University of the Free State

Rene de Klerk, was a lecturer in the Department of Political Studies and Governance at the University of the Free State at the time of writing this article. Her research has focused on democratization in Africa and issues of corruption in South Africa. Currently she works as a researcher and analyst for FOCUS Group. She has a specific interest in climate justice and development in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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Published

2023-05-15

Issue

Vol. 13 No. 2 (2023): IJIK

Section

Articles

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