Will Islam progress?

Will Islam progress beyond this century and by "progress" i don't mean just grow quantitatively, but qualitatively?

It is almost becoming a cliche to state that Islam is one of the world's fastest-growing faiths. In almost every continent, not only is it quantitatively increasing but, contrary to media coverage, a greater number of its adherents are females rather than males - all the attempts at painting Islam as a repressive religion for females notwithstanding.

There is a difference between "Islam" and "culture-specific Islam" - the latter seems to be practised by many individuals raised since birth as Muslims. "Culture-specific Islam" is an oxymoronic phrase because Islam by its very nature transcends culture and heritage. Shoulder-to-shoulder do its followers stand during salaah, a Nigerian next to a Bolivian next to an American, all equal in the eyes of Allah. However, in reality, that egalitarian belief is seldom implemented by those raised since birth as Muslims.

i am beginning to know a few Muslim reverts (individuals who have decided to revert to Islam). One of the aspects that strikes me the most about their personalities, generally speaking, is their lack of cultural baggage. They consciously made a decision to adopt a faith subsequent to independent study of that faith - they actually read a meaning of the Quran (often not being able to read the Quran in its Revealed language), they study the hadiths, they actively hunt out books on diverse topics within Islam, and if they have questions/concerns/criticisms etc., they try to seek out an educated and qualified Muslim scholar to address their concerns. Once their heart and mind are both satisfied, they declare the shahada.

i think, if Islam will genuinely "progress" beyond this century, it will be upon the shoulders, sweat and tears of individuals such as the ones above - the new generation of Muslim reverts, the Johns, Julies, Toms, and Smiths. They are the ones untainted by centuries of cultural superstition, dogma, cultural prejudice, customs, biased beliefs, passed from parent to child (as is the case, for example, in many Pakistani Muslim families). Reflect on your "average" Pakistani wedding - feasts fit for royalty, lavish affairs that parents save up money for since their son's/daughter's birth, extravagant dowries paid (dowries? Islam? come again?), finest silks/chiffons/georgettes bought for members of the other side, elaborate logic-defying customs clung to obstinately, the literal showing-off of the presents/suits/shalwar kameezes/rolexes purchased by the bride's side of the family, tonnes of food literally thrown away, wasted, food sufficient to feed a village, wasted in order simply to show that one is financially capable of wasting food...Oftentimes, the only point at which Islam makes a presence during a Pakistani wedding is during the signing of the nikaah, subsequent to which it's bhangra-time where both genders may or may not dance together, or gossip-fests to discuss who's bahu has yet to produce a male heir.

It is the Muslim reverts who may yet bring back purity to Islam, who may yet be the 'modern' generation that not just reads the Quran, not just recites the Quran, but lives the Quran.