As the threats from Islamic militancy grow and we try to find the root of the ideologies which driving the terrorists to carry out such barbaric act, the debate whether it is possible for Muslim population to shift from these fanatic ideologies towards a more moderate form of Islam is dominating the concerned circle.

It must be noted that despite having differences, Muslims (except a handful) as a group of people are as peaceful as the rest of the world and they are the primary victim of the horrific acts carried out by the terrorists. Proportionately a handful of them are driven by the troubled ideologies.

Because of the enormous pressure from science and our shift towards rationalist views, the religious texts including Islamic texts are now more scrutinized than ever. Just couple of centuries ago, it was just a few philosophers, but now a large number of people specially the young people are questioning traditional forms of religious practices and interpretations of religious texts.

Modern values like democracy, free speech and freedom of opinion are challenging authority of religion worldwide and forcing the religious authorities to adopt a moderate version of religion. For example-Christianity has transformed into a more human ideology as the new age moderate Christians conveniently ignore the savagery and bigotry of the Bible. Christian dominated Europe has left the ignorance and dark ages of church ruling behind and developed itself into a modern humanistic society.

Most significant problems with religious ideologies are the so called divine rulings- the proposition that these ideologies and the texts are the eternal, literal word of God. These texts are described as preserved in heaven or in the mind of God which makes it impossible to change the texts. This leaves no rooms to simply ignore the horrible parts of these texts. However the question is, how much impact these ancient texts could have in modern human affairs?

For centuries, priests and the rulers and in past two centuries far right politicians have been using religion to justify their political interests through ignorance, inequality, slavery, and persecution. Since the introduction of modern democracy and people's power the situation has changed dramatically. Access to information allowing modern human to engage in reflective and independent thinking. Freedom, rationality and clear thinking replaced age old ignorance and as none of these religions has power to survive alone, some have adopted to new values e.g. Christianity. Though, Christianity is not more human than any other religions by its own choice, it had to change in order to survive. Although the changes that took place in faiths like Christianity is not fundamental or ideological. The so called divine texts still exists in the book, the modern church has just distanced itself from the cruel elements of the book as they have realized the reality of the modern civilization. The agent for these changes were the people who once helped Christianity to thrive and to survive.

Islam has also changed . Many of the young Muslims aren't practicing Islam as it was really taught. Age old Muslim traditions like polygamy, hatred of Jews, Christians and unbelievers, discrimination towards women are disappearing in a slow pace. However the changes that are happening in the Muslim society is not sufficient and it is happening mainly in the urban Muslim society.

The fact is Muslim society is in a dire need of reform to save their image and to pursue the world that their faith is not a threat for peace and stability. They must acknowledge, The global extremism today generates primarily from Muslims in the name of their faith, and the Muslims can not just brush off accusations just by saying that the terrorists are not true believers.

It is understandable that neither Christianity, Islam, Judaism nor any other major religion can be fundamentally reformed. As the ancient and outdated texts can not be changed, it's the followers of the texts who should change because without the followers the faith itself does not exists and if the required reforms do not happen, it is simply because the followers do not want it to.

The ideologies preached by radical Sunni Muslims who are grappling the world with terrorism- the Muslims as a society can not embrace reforms, gives us a problematic view about Islam. There is no concrete reason to believe that Muslims can not adopt changes. Throughout the History religions and religious societies have changed. Human beings are the architect of the society and they are the one to chose which ideologies they should follow. Even Islam according to Islamic texts and teachings is the reformed version of Judaism and Christianity. It is now up to the Muslims to chose whether they should adopt the enlightenment era values and modern era qualities or return to the Dark ages.

One key problem for the Muslim societies to evolve is lack of freedom that stops freethinkers and moderate Muslims to challenge the Ideologies which are not compatible to a modern society. In the Western societies religions have been through a process of challenge from various sectors of the society and as a result more moderate and secular values took over the radicalism. Muslim political establishment does not allow criticism of Islam. If freethinking and criticism of Islam were allowed in the Muslim countries, it would have been easier to achieve much needed reforms for the peace and stability of the world.

Muslim way of life can not be reformed is nothing but a lie. Though it is insufficient but Islamic laws have been reformed in many Islamic countries, e.g.. Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh.The lawmakers of these countries were able to adress its citizens about the values which are not compatible to modern era of human civilization, creation of social chaos, violent Muslim extremism and sufferings not only to the majority of the Muslim society but also to the entire world.

Many Muslims strongly believe Illiteracy, ignorance, lack of communication holding their societies back to 670 AD and want to see changes.

The Muslim leaders should address the issues that really matters for the peace instead of just sugarcoating the "Religion of peace" myth. It's time for them to put forward a reform agenda and produce factual, logical, robust reason why they should be respected rather than ignorance, frustration and aggression.