Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser passionately expresses his views in “A Battle for the Soul of Islam”. He is a former Navy Lieutenant Commander in the US Navy and served his country as a Muslim. He is a conservative and stands for freedom and the free enterprise system which is advocated as ‘mutually acceptable transactions’ per 4:29 and other verses. He recognizes God’s great gift to humans in the Quran of freedom.
Dr. Jasser correctly believes that there is nothing in the Quran which supports an ‘Islamic State’. He formed American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) to engage Muslims in advocacy of the separation of state and religion.
In his book he exposes various Muslim organizations such as CAIR and ISNA in USA which are linked to Muslim Brotherhood. He has written articles in various newspapers, national radio programs and has testified to the U.S. Committee on Homeland Security. He makes a distinction between Islam and Islamism. Islamists and Islamism betray the principles in the Quran.
He also writes about US foreign policy and points out that the US should not be supporting a country such as Saudi Arabia which exports their radical brand of Wahabism all over the world. He also correctly points out that after the 911 attacks, the US (and the West) response did not address (and still do not address) the core issue – the ideology of the Islamists which has nothing to do whatsoever with the Quran.
Dr. Jasser debated Reza Aslan who wrote ‘No god but God’ and who believes that “Muslim Reformation” has already happened. Dr Jasser writes, “The groups Aslan aligns himself, such as MPAC and ISNA, are notoriously silent about the need for reform toward the separation of mosque and state …”. He also writes about Aslan, “His refusal to engage in a substantive discourse about Islamism, its association with radicalization, and its funding streams is typical of pseudointellectual Islamists who provide cover for the global theo-political movement of Islamism”.
Dr. Jasser may have also translated the Quran (The Holy Quran, An Interpretive Translation from Classical Arabic into Contemporary English, by Mohammed K Jasser, published in 2008).
The reformation that Dr Jasser seeks exists, and has existed for 1400 years. That reformation is in worshiping God alone and upholding only God’s words in the Quran as the only source of law. His translation and his book do not acknowledge the following:
- The Quran is a fully detailed scripture per 6:114, 10:37
- The Quran is the only source of law or the only criterion per 6:114
- The words of God in the Quran are complete per 6:115
- No words can abrogate God’s words in the Quran per 6:115 and 10:37
- Quran is Hadith per 7:185, 12:111, 39:23, 45:6, 52:34, 68:44, 77:50
- The Quran is the only acceptable Hadith per 77:50, 45:6, 7:185
- The Arabic word sunnah (system) refers only to God’s sunnah and never as the Prophet’s sunnah per 17:77, 33:62, 48:23
- That God is the Teacher of the Quran per 55:2
Dr. Jasser writes, “A Muslim like myself can stop an Islamist in his tracks by asking, what about the idea of reforming those aspects of shariah law – such as stonings, blasphemy, apostasy, sexism – so that it more accurately reflect the present day? The typical response to such a question is that if shariah is reformed, then it is no longer shariah, and that this threatens the very existence of Islam”.
The religion of Submission (Islam) is based on God’s words in the Quran which are complete, perfect, fully detailed and the only source of law. No other law or shariah is acceptable for one who worships God alone and believes what God says in the Quran.