"The troubles of the Muslim world, however, are not those of pre-Reformation Europe, but rather of the Reformation in full swing."

"It has become common in Western circles, infused by the Whig interpretation of history, to speak of the need for a Muslim Luther to induce liberalism in Islam.  The troubles of the Muslim world, however, are not those of pre-Reformation Europe, but rather of the Reformation in full swing.  Hundreds of splintering congregations are seeking to suppress the accretions of popular religion, and return to the letter of the original scriptures, denouncing and warring with one another and the resurgent hierocrats of Shia Islam in Iran.  Nobody speaks for all Muslims, and political power is sought on the back of religious piety.  If one is to engage in the prescribing of solutions for Islam—a presumptuous excursion into the realm of the hypothetical, and to be done with due humility—then the fall of the Ottomans inspires a different thought:  perhaps we should encourage our Muslim friends to seek not a Luther but a pope."

     Gerard Russell, "Jihad:  the lessons of the Caliphate," The New York review of books 62, no. 8 (May 7, 2015):  47 (46-47).