I've read the scholarship that explains these verses 'in their context', and I think there's a fancy dance of evasion going on. - Irshad Manji

It is time for those who love liberal democracy to join hands with Islam's reformists. Here is a clue to who's who: Moderate Muslims denounce violence committed in the name of Islam but insist that religion has nothing to do with it; reformist Muslims, by contrast, not only deplore Islamist violence but admit that our religion is used to incite it.

The Koran says nothing about the proper form of government. If the Koran is a document approved by God, either in whole or in part, that silence is deliberate, and if that silence is deliberate that must mean that we have room to manoeuvre, to innovate and to experiment with the different forms of government. So in theory Islam is compatible with the separation of religion and state.

Islam was not always so close minded. During the 'Golden age' – between the 9th and 11th century – there existed a tradition of critical thinking in the Muslim world.