The murder of Jamal Khashoggi encapsulates the crisis which has overtaken 1.5 billion Muslims, 22 percent of world population, their religion and their scattered and widespread civilization.

Mr. Khashoggi put it succinctly when he wrote, “The Arab world has been seeking renaissance for the last 100 years,” but the movement for reform had been blocked by authoritarian leaders and public rage at endemic corruption.

So-called reformers, such as Saudi Arabia’s Crown Mohammed bin Salman, promise to embrace social and economic reform, and to make Saudi Arabia and its 30 million Muslims more open and tolerant. But he and others like him in addressing the things that hold back progress have instituted their own repression.

The crown prince presides over dozens of imprisoned Saudi intellectuals, clerics, journalists and social media stars ? the vast majority of whom have violated no laws with their mild criticism of government.

Meanwhile, many members of the Saudis’ Council of Senior Scholars (“Ulema”) have extremist ideas. Highly regarded cleric, Sheikh Saleh Al-Lohaidan, has told Muslim rulers they are not bound to consult others before entering decrees.

Their reactionary opinions about democracy, pluralism ? as with the celebrated issue of women driving ? are protected by royal decree from counter-argument.

Always the kind of journalist who annoys the authorities, Mr. Khashoggi thought the prince an impulsive hothead who undermined some of his own good ideas for reform.

Will this Islam, as early Christianity and Judaism did, abandon clerical authority to the civilian leadership? Islam has difficulty with this, and so it resists. This makes true reformation unlikely.