Turkey produces a revolutionary reinterpretation of Islamic texts

BBC ^ | 26 February 2008 | Robert Piggott

[northmoor]

Turkey in radical revision of Islamic texts By Robert Piggott Religious affairs correspondent, BBC News

Turkey is preparing to publish a document that represents a revolutionary reinterpretation of Islam - and a controversial and radical modernisation of the religion.

The country's powerful Department of Religious Affairs has commissioned a team of theologians at Ankara University to carry out a fundamental revision of the Hadith, the second most sacred text in Islam after the Koran.

It says that a significant number of the sayings were never uttered by Muhammad, and even some that were need now to be reinterpreted.

Some messages ban women from travelling without their husband's permission... But this isn't a religious ban. It came about because it simply wasn't safe for a woman to travel alone Prof Mehmet Gormez, Hadith expert, Department of Religious Affairs

Prof Mehmet Gormez, a senior official in the Department of Religious Affairs and an expert on the Hadith, gives a telling example.

"There are some messages that ban women from travelling for three days or more without their husband's permission and they are genuine.

"But this isn't a religious ban. It came about because in the Prophet's time it simply wasn't safe for a woman to travel alone like that. But as time has passed, people have made permanent what was only supposed to be a temporary ban for safety reasons."

Prof Gormez points out that in another speech, the Prophet said "he longed for the day when a woman might travel long distances alone".

So, he argues, it is clear what the Prophet's goal was.

Yet, until now, the ban has remained in the text, and helps to restrict the free movement of some Muslim women to this day.

[Jo Nuvark]

In order to deceive and convert the west, Islam
must beguile superficial western women. Not difficult,
even though their piggish religion is transparently
flawed, brutally chauvinistic and idealistically
unattractive. It be”hooves” Islamists then to evangelize
the west by smearing the pig with a “kinder - gentler”
shade of lipstick.

How clever of the enemy to encourage the apostasy
by dumbing down his own deviancy.

[Publius]

Look at it this way. France and Spain were both powerful and wished to avoid a direct confrontation. So they fought a proxy war in Germany.

It's like the struggle between the US and the Soviets. It was fought in places like Vietnam and Afghanistan, not directly.

[arthurus]

The Turks are tho only ones likely to do something like this. I wonder if things are going to start blowing up in Istanbul and Ankara.

[NewJerseyJoe]

My gut tells me that the Europeans will raise a bigger stink about this than Al-Qaeda and the Wahhabists.....

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

I think they understand that they won't have to lift a finger on that front; the Dhimmicrats have made it clear that they're more than happy to bend over and take it up the tailpipe from the Mohammedans in the name of "cultural sensitivity" and "political correctness."

I don't think the demoCraps are the only ones in love with Shari.

[wmfights]

How clever of the enemy to encourage the apostasy by dumbing down his own deviancy.

I can't disagree that this is possible, but I don't think they are that smart. I think it's more likely that they are beginning to see that these terrorists will turn on them if we aren't around. The other possibility is if we are so successful in Iraq that the terrorists can't function there they will need to find another place to operate from.

[L.M.H.]

Keep in mind that since Turks are a separate ethnic group from Arabs and write/speak a very different language, their influence within the Arab world is quite limited IMO. Same goes for the Persians, as Iran was never particularly fond of Turks or Turkey. Turkey would have the most influence over small central Asian Turkic/Muslim nations like Azerbaijan.

While encouraging, an Islamic reform movement will likely have to be co-opted by the Arabs for it to really spread far and wide. I have more hope for the North African Arabs (Tunisians, Moroccans), than the Gulf Arabs. And perhaps the Southeast Asian Muslims might catch on as well...

[goldstategop]

Kemal Ataturk would have approved. He wanted Turks to live in a modern, prosperous and peaceful society. The extreme to which he de-laicised Turkey had no precedent in the Muslim World. For him, the Ottoman Empire repressed the Turkish potential so they needed their own nation, without the obscurantism of the past and looking ahead to the future.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[muawiyah]

Actually leading it back into the 7th and 8th centuries. Most of the nonsense got piled up later on.

[Das Outsider]

Thanks for the ping, wm! I’ll have to go over it.

[muawiyah]

The endpoint of the Thirty Years War was the Treaty (Peace) of Westphalia. This set up the modern nation-state model and established bounds within which international commerce (of all kinds) was to be conducted.

George Bush is violating some of the most fundamental precepts in the Treaty of Westphalia to recognize Kosovo as an independent state.

It's as though he wants to refight the Thirty Years War!

[muawiyah]

It would be much better for Islam to RETURN to the 7th Century. It’s later on that it totally derailed.

[muawiyah]

Wahabism is a relatively modern way to read and interpet the Koran. They use a lot of extra-koranic and extra-hadithic material to support their point of view.

Salafism takes the "words" then adds ancestor worship to the mix to come up with a "do it or else" pattern.

It's not authentic Islam.

[muawiyah]

Sweden and Denmark were in on the war. Sweden was, in fact, the dominant power in Western Europe during most of the period of the Thirty Years War. They had a couple of secrets ~ better firearms, better trained soldiers, cold as he double toothpicks up there so no one would invade their territory, and so on.

They were also highly motivated by a sense of superiority over other Europeans.

[Das Outsider]

So ... do these folks call themselves the “Mohammed Seminar?”

Bingo--my thoughts exactly! It sounds well and good that segments of Islam are moving forward into modernity, but the same can be said for the ideologically far-left elements in today's Protestant Christian churches. A smug and triumphalist--thoroughly Marxist, I might add-- methodology just won't do in either case.

That isn't to say that I wouldn't welcome a scholarly and critical examination of the Qur'an. There haven't been many Bultmanns, Barths, Tillichs, et al in the Islamic world, i.e., a challenge or opportunity for orthodox apologetic arguments.

[L.M.H.]

From the article:

But the Turkish state has come to see the Hadith as having an often negative influence on a society it is in a hurry to modernise...

Understatement of the year.

[Das Outsider]

The “Jesus” Film has been finding its way into the middle east with eternal results. Continue to pray for the hearts and minds of these lost people. The last one to say yes to Jesus could be a (former) Muslim.

The mission field in apologetics with regard to Muslims is wide open. Conversion is real and ex-Muslims do exist.

It is demonstrative of one fundamental truth: the grace, love, and mercy of God is greater than one's culture, upbringing, and circumstances.

[Jo Nuvark]

[... How clever of the enemy to encourage the apostasy
by dumbing down his (its) own deviancy...]

I hadn’t considered my meaning of the enemy as mortal,
though you connect the concept quite well. I was thinking
of our Spiritual enemy - Satan.

[Das Outsider]

I hadn’t considered my meaning of the enemy as mortal, though you connect the concept quite well. I was thinking of our Spiritual enemy - Satan.

Perhaps it's a difference between the useful idiots and the boss, if you will. In other words, working toward the same end in different capacities.

Out of curiosity, Jo, are you familiar with Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia? I may have asked this before, but I'm not entirely sure.

[Jo Nuvark]

Yes... familiar in that I saw the movie Lion Witch & the
Wardrobe. My children have read the Chronicles many times.

I’m trying to remember if I read the stories as a child
when I was an unbeliever. I recall weeping when Aslan
died, but I didn’t know then that he represented Jesus.