Islam, History, Spirituality, Individuality - Questions

It is one of those days where, while highly peeved about having a cold, I am also grateful for it. Without the cold, and my resulting lack of energy to do much besides read, I don’t know when I would have gotten to these two books which have been on my reading list for months now:
Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes, by Tamim Ansary

The Trouble with Islam Today, by Irshad Manji

I started with Destiny Disrupted, because it promised not just a look into what’s happening now, but an overview of the arc of the history of Islam and hence a deeper understanding of its course of development. And wow. Did I learn a lot.

I realized shortly into the book that my ignorace about Islamic history was nothing short of profound. I hesitate to admit it – but I didn’t realize that the Ottoman Empire was Islamic. I just thought it was Persian. I didn’t realize that when the Mongols swept down through that part of the world, that they settled in to an existing Islamic society – at least, what was left of it after their devastating invasion - and adopted Islam. In short, I was clueless about the importance of Islam in the history of the Middle East (not to mention northern Africa, southern Spain, eastern Europe, and much of Asia).

One of the most interesting aspects, for me, was the perspective on the development of the parameters of Islam.  From both books, it sounds like the structure of Islam has developed primarily through scholars devoted to the study of what Mohammed did in his time, and for new situations, the careful deduction of what he might be supposed to do based on his life.  Because there are generations of scholars who have devoted their lives to this study, the common person has no reason even to think about these things - and in fact is discouraged from such thinking. 

This is pretty much diametrically opposed to something like the Sweet Medicine SunDance Path (see the article on the acquisition of knowledge, in particular the 4th paragraph, or Why Do We Need Rites of Passage?), with the emphasis it puts on free-thinking and autonomy as the ideal for all people and absolutely necessary for spiritual evolution, or the highly decentralized Wicca (see http://www.religioustolerance.org/witchcra.htm), or perhaps any spiritual path that emphasizes individual experience of God or Spirit.  Some of this is almost certainly cultural: Islam emerged in a society where the cohesion of the collective was critical for survival; other spiritual paths came out of cultures that emphasized individuality more. 

Overall, the reading left me with many more questions than answers.  I now have many more books on my reading list.