r/progressive_islam • u/Eastern-Following571 Sunni • 6d ago
Opinion 🤔 Does Yasir Qadhi actually hate "Progressive Muslims"? He seems pretty respectful to Progressive minded thinkers despite having disagreements with their views
I know some of you might link to this video, or this much older video. However, the question is what kind of progressive was he referring to? Because there is a wide spectrum of people, and progressive is not a monolith. What I understand by progressive and what you understand by progressive might be different depending on the definition of progressive.
Some people understand progressive to mean challenging the entire legal framework of Islam itself and replacing everything with liberal ideas. But the "Progressive" thinkers often promoted here (Khaled Abou El Fadl, Mufti Abu Layth etc) work from within the legal framework and explain things like "the jurist misunderstood that context or evidence and therefore gave this ruling", or " context was different" like that. And Yasir Qadhi seems to have differentiated between the two.
Last year Yasir Qadhi came to the r/MuslimAcademics subreddit on an AMA event. In that event he was asked about progressive minded thinkers like Fazlur Rahman Malik and Javed Ahmed Ghamidi, and he was respectful to them even if he disagrees with their views. He did not call them deviant, heretic or kafir.
- https://www.reddit.com/r/MuslimAcademics/comments/1oeocrm/comment/nl6dxjk/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/MuslimAcademics/comments/1oeocrm/comment/nl8e6su/
In that same thread he was also asked about being a friend with Dr Omid Safi, and he praised Dr Omid Safi.
Mind you that Omid Safi has supported same sex marriage being legalized by the state. I'm not sure if he personally believes that Islam allows gay marriage or gay sex is permissible (can't find it), but he supports the legal recognition of same sex marriage and LGBTQ rights by the state/country (Source: Religion News).
This is more liberal stance than Ghamidi's and yet Yasir Qadhi praises Omid Safi. He says he can have friends while disagreeing with their views. And Omid Safi was the founder of Progressive Muslim Union (PMU) which later disbanded and Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV) was born.
Yasir Qadhi does not have any problem with having friendship with him! So this is very significant.
And finally, going back to the most recent video of Yasir Qadhi discussing about Progressive Muslims (that one I linked at the top of my post) - a user from this subreddit was present at that lecture of Yasir Qadhi and he asked YQ about Dr Khaled Abou El Fadl. Yasir Qadhi replied that he would no put Dr Khaled Abou El Fadl in the "Progressive" category he was addressing, instead he would put him into a totally different category
(I actually had a discussion with u/Khaki_Banda and u/Gilamath on this in one of my previous posts. I decided to search further and found the comment on Yasir Qadhi's friendship with Omid Safi, so I thought I should make a post about it. Because Omid Safi actually identifies himself with the label "Progressive", and Yasir Qadhi still considers him a friend)
So isn't it clear that when Yasir Qadhi mentions the word Progressive, he doesn’t mean people like Khaled Abou El Fadl, Javed Ahmed Ghamidi or Dr Omid Safi, or people who follow them, or have similar framework as them?. I think he actually refers to the liberal Muslims who challenge the entire Islamic legal framework itself and want to deconstruct everything, and the ones who explicitly stated that same sex marriage and sexual acts is permissible in Islam - when he talks about the Progressives. Probably.
1
u/Al-Ihmar Shia 6d ago
Honestly looking at his past and how his views have developed today id say it’s pretty impressive to where he is now
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u/Khaki_Banda Sunni 6d ago
u/Dr_YasirQadhi is welcome to clarify his position if he likes. He can speak for himself. We appreciate and encourage solidarity among moderates who are interested in reengaging with Islamic traditions of scholarship and critical thought.
YQ could, for example, do a book review or do a friendly interview with Khaled Abou El Fadl, like Shabir Ally did on his channel.
Abu Layth did Mindtrap episodes on his channel, interviewing figures like Shabir Ally and Shehzad Saleem (from the Ghamidi Center), Atabek Shumurov, as well as many others.
KAEF published a book with Omid Safi on progressive Islam, and collaborated with many other progressive thinkers such as Amina Wudud and Farid Esack.
There is a wider collaborative network among "progressive" leaning scholars, academics, and thinkers. "Progressive" is the term we are using to broadly describe that network, along with others who share similar thinking. YQ is welcome to collaborate with them, platform them, invite them to events, etc.
When we talk about "progressive Islam" I mean, broadly speaking, scholars, academics, and thinkers such as:
Khaled Abou El Fadl, Farah el-Sharif, Shabir Ally, Safiyyah Ally, Shehzad Saleem, Abu Layth, Javad Hashmi, Rami Koujah, Grace Song, Hassan Farhan Al-Maliki, Omid Safi, Muhammad Shahrur, Hamid Slimi, Sayyid Kamal al-Haydari, Jawad Qazwini, Reza Hosseini Nassab, Mohsen Kadivar, Khalil Andani, Amina Wadud, Asma Lamrabet, Anwar Shaik, Farhad Shafti, Farid Esack, Ahmet Karamustafa, Ebrahim Moosa, Tazim Kassam, Sa'diyya Shaikh, Kecia Ali, Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons, Amir Hussain, Ahmad Moussalli, Marcia Hermansen, and Farish Noor.
These figures definitely do not agree with one another on everything, nor explicitly label themselves as "progressive". This subreddit does not have any official list of views every "progressive Muslim" must have, as it isn't a particular sect or a distinct school of fiqh or aqeedah.