Just chatted a bit with Aziz earlier this afternoon, and I feel like I want to clear up a few things that I left implicit in the previous post.

I have, as I earlier noted, advised great caution in importing Christian analogues when speaking of Islam. But, I believe that my objection was specifically in the context of the Protestant/Catholic-Sunni/Shia metaphor. Therefore, I think I have dodged the letter of the law as far as my objection goes, since I am making an analogue between Calvinism and the general expression of Islam. But, I think it can be argued I violated the spirit of my previous position-I even make a point of cautioning against over-emphasizing points of similarity between Sunni practice & Protestant practice.

So, let me be a bit more explicit & narrow in my focus:

I wanted to highlight similarities between Calvinism as it evolved in the United States, and the possible future trajectory of American Islam. I make a few references to Europe, but I think any sort of projection by analogy is far more difficult in that context. I do believe that American Muslims are reinterpreting their religion in a Protestantized fashion, and as I have stated earlier, short term compromises often work their way up through systems of belief (that is, superficial Protestantization can lead to more thoroughgoing internalization of Protestant ways of thinking and practicing). In fact, Randy used the American Catholic analogy in his post on Muslims in France, and I think that part of the problem is that I'm not convinced that the American system of religious pluralism and public piety exists in Europe.