TIME magazine profiles Samir Khali Samir, S.J., author of...

... 111 Questions on Islam, published recently by Ignatius Press. From the article, "The Jesuit Who Inspired the Pope's Ideas on Islam," written by Jeff Israely:

A new book has just been released by Ignatius Press (the longtime U.S. publisher of Ratzinger's work) that lays out in fine detail the Jesuit's vision of Islam's ancient tenets and current tendencies. Called 111 Questions on Islam, it is the translation of a book-length interview that two Italian journalists conducted with Samir in 2002, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. The priest says that in reviewing the material before the English-language release, he was struck by how little there was to update. "The major points that I laid out are the same today after more than six years," Samir told TIME in a telephone interview. "This means the problems that we face with Islam continue to be more or less the same."

Samir says that beyond resolving the political conflict in the Muslim world, there is much hard intellectual work that needs to be done to combat violence and expand freedom within the religion's ranks. "Islam is living a moment of great intellectual weakness, there is a crisis of thought," he told TIME. "Certain things must be cleared up, ambiguities must be removed to arrive at a reading of the Koran in light of the contemporary culture based on human rights." (See the pope's relationship with Islam.)

Samir sees as one of the great challenges facing Islam a lack of official leadership to certify or dismiss interpretations of what sacred texts say, notably on the question of violence. "There is a need for an authority, unanimously acknowledged by Muslims, that could say 'From now on, only this verse is valid.' But this does not — and probably will never — happen," he writes in response to Question No. 26. "This means that when some fanatics kill children, women and men in the name of pure and authentic Islam, or in the name of the Koran or of the Muslim tradition, nobody can tell them, 'You are not true and authentic Muslims.' All they can say is: 'Your reading of Islam is not ours.' And this is the ambiguity of Islam, from its beginning to the present day: violence is a part of it, although it is also possible to choose tolerance; tolerance is a part of it, but it is also possible to choose violence."

Read the entire TIME piece.

Also read the preface to the book, available on Ignatius Insight: