70anything we say could apply to Judaism and
Chris tian ity. But a par tic u lar strand of a politi-
cized version of the Muslim faith is causing a dis-
proportionate share of problems in the world, so
there are good reasons to focus on that strand. I
don’t dispute any of that.
Just as a side note, you say that in the twenty- fi rst
century we should have the right to edit any holy
book, but of course there will always be value in
preserving texts as they were, say, a thousand years
ago, even as historical documents. I don’t think the
issue is the physical state of the texts we’re looking
at. This brings me neatly to everything else you
said: I think the challenge lies with interpretation,
the methodologies behind reform, whether reform-
ists are in fact continuing a pretense, and whether
this challenge is insurmountable. I think it’s about
approach.
Let’s start with this: You’re very clearly speaking
from an intellectual perspective, you’re trying to ap-
proach this consistently, you’re trying to approach
this with an understanding of the challenges ahead,
and you’re trying to be sensitive and not harm my
work. I appreciate all that. But you also have to rec-
ognize that you’re speaking from the luxury of
living in— were probably born and raised in— a ma-
Bereitgestellt von | New York University Bobst Library Technical Services
Angemeldet