Quote Originally Posted by Burney View Post
The problem they have is that any scrutiny of what the Quran actually says is going to be problematic for 'peaceful, modern muslims', since rather a lot of it isn't peaceful or modern.
One of the mistakes we make about Islam is thinking that the Quran is directly equivalent to the New Testament and thus all about the peace, love and understanding with just a couple of iffy bits. It really, really isn't. It's highly problematic in a lot of areas, which is why people prefer to gloss over it with the whole 'It's the religion of peace' nonsense and move on before anyone asks any tricky questions.
The fact is that on issues such as the place of women in society, attitudes towards non-muslims, blasphemy, apostasy, homosexuality and others, the Quran is actually pretty horrific.
True, yet the overwhelming majority of Muslims still lead their lives and consider themselves good Muslims while ignoring the parts to which you refer, so that gives us hope. An Islamic reformation is too much to ask for in our lifetime, Burney, but the very least we can expect is for the Muslim community leaders, imams etc to emphasize the parts of Islam which are consistent with modern life in Britain and to the extent that it is possible, ostracise the 70 year old men who grew up in the nether regions of Pakistan (as an example) and have far too much sympathy for the nutters.

More women and young people being active leaders within their communities is the key, I think. Less chaps in robes and silly hats with stupid beards.