Many in the West take the Paris attacks as evidence that Islam needs reform, or indeed a full-on Reformation. They should be careful what they wish for. The reforming of religions is a messy business, and does not necessarily make them gentler or more biddable. Indeed the jihadists from whom the Paris murderers took their lead see themselves as reformers, tasked with a mission to strip their faith of centuries of arcane jurisprudence and non-Islamic practice and bring it back to its fiercer, truer original form. Their goal is nothing like the tempering outcome hoped for by those calling for a Reformation along the line of Europe's five centuries ago, but the process has at least one similarity. As in the religious wars that followed on from Europe's Reformation, the worst of the violence perpetrated byji-hadists has been felt by their co-religionists. Most of the victims of resurgent Islamic fundamentalism have been Muslims.
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