NYTimes - Friedman -- An Islamic Reformation

Mr. Aghajari's speech: "the Protestant movement wanted to rescue Christianity from the clergy and the church hierarchy," so Muslims must do something similar today. The Muslim clergymen who have come to dominate their faith, he said, were never meant to have a monopoly on religious thinking or be allowed to ban any new interpretations in light of modernity.

"Just as people at the dawn of Islam conversed with the Prophet, we have the right to do this today," he said. "Just as they interpreted what was conveyed [to them] at historical junctures, we must do the same. We cannot say: `Because this is the past we must accept it without question.' . . . This is not logical. For years, young people were afraid to open a Koran. They said, `We must go ask the mullahs what the Koran says.' Then came Shariati, and he told the young people that those ideas were bankrupt. [He said] you could understand the Koran using your own methods. . . . The religious leaders taught that if you understand the Koran on your own, you have committed a crime. They feared that their racket would cease to exist if young people learned [the Koran] on their own."

Years ago, I reflected after hearing an Islamic speaker at Servetus, a religious discussion and social group named after Michael Servetus, that Islam was bad because of more obvious politics and actions recommended in its holy book and because it had not had a reformation period. Friedman thinks that Iran is now starting a reformation. Does that mean in a hundred years it won't be any worse than Christianity?