Progressive Muslim Movement was a movement in North America that sought to create a modern and more inclusive Muslim populace at home with modernity and secularism. Its major leaders included Asra Nomani, Amina Wadud, Tarek Fateh, Syed Farhaj Hassan, Jawad Ali and Yasser Latif Hamdani.
The progressive Muslim movement got launched soon after 9-11-2001. There was an awakening of sorts. What used to be progressives meeting on Yahoo group lists became organized into a more concrete body of people with a mission and a set of principles.
Progressive Muslim Union (PMU)started the movement primarily made up of activists with scholar Omid Safi as the inspiration. Unfortunately progressives being who they are, too independent minded for their own good, the group disbanded.
Muslim for Progressive Values was founded by two ex-board members of PMU, Ani Zonneveld and Pamela Taylor and established itself as a non-profit in 2007.
Since then there has been several more progressive groups in the United States. There is the New York Progressive Muslim Community, American Islamic Foundation (Atlanta), and probably more operating under the radar.
Famous quotes containing the words progressive, muslim and/or movement:
“I don’t have any doubts that there will be a place for progressive white people in this country in the future. I think the paranoia common among white people is very unfounded. I have always organized my life so that I could focus on political work. That’s all I want to do, and that’s all that makes me happy.”
—Hettie V., South African white anti-apartheid activist and feminist. As quoted in Lives of Courage, ch. 21, by Diana E. H. Russell (1989)
“For the salvation of his soul the Muslim digs a well. It would be a fine thing if each of us were to leave behind a school, or a well, or something of the sort, so that life would not pass by and retreat into eternity without a trace.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“Institutional psychiatry is a continuation of the Inquisition. All that has really changed is the vocabulary and the social style. The vocabulary conforms to the intellectual expectations of our age: it is a pseudo-medical jargon that parodies the concepts of science. The social style conforms to the political expectations of our age: it is a pseudo-liberal social movement that parodies the ideals of freedom and rationality.”
—Thomas Szasz (b. 1920)