banned in most chatrooms

Yesterday's khutbah Jumaat, I thought, was a big slap in the face for one or two very prominent dudes. It was about liberal Islam. And the essence of it was how some people argue that religion should be open for everyone to discuss.

Well, agreed. Thing is, I look at it this way; when writing an article for scientific journals, for example, almost every single sentence must be referred to another refereed scientific article, except one's own findings (from one's own experiment(s)). And then the (newly) written article shall be refereed before being published. By experts. So if we can adhere to a somewhat similar system when discussing religion, where whatever opinions should be based on a sentence (or a few sentences) from the Hadith or Al-Qur'an, then it would be fine, provided that the sentences are in their full form (no spin, please. This is religion we're talking about here) and that the experts (that is, Islamic scholars) can give their opinions based on how they understood the particular discussion at hand, because, well, they're the experts here.

A source of frustration, I think, is because lots of people think they don't have any say when it comes to religion, and so they just have to accept. That is sad. Accepting without knowing (and, well, without questioning), I think, would be the very definition of jahiliyyah.

On the other hand, no one should take a few sentences from the Hadith or Al-Qur'an and 'mould' them to 'fit their agenda'.

Religion is something that should you want to embrace, you should embrace fully, not take whatever fits your fancy and leave the rest. Free discussions? Yes. Opinions and counter opinions? Yes. Spin? Please, no. We are free to have opinions, but let us be guided by the Hadith and Al-Qur'an, not popular choice.