Muslim Reformation

Submitted by K.H. Ahmed (United States), May 26, 2008 at 08:31

Me again sorry - but read your second link.

First the easy stuff - when I was a kid all the portugese catholics covered their hair, so did the Italians, some just for church others all the time. The old widows wore black like forever. Actually within the Muslim community that 1.5bil we spoke of the arguement as to whether it is required or not still rages on - the Koran does not call for it - the Hadiths do -

I must admit to prejudice here - I am of Turkish descent and proud of its sectarian nature, you will note my e-mail, attaturk the founder of the secular state of Turkey. The Turks have long struggled to keep religion seperate from politics. Just as here in America we struggle with the seperation of the two competing goals, one progressive movement towards the future and two the conservative religious instinct to stay rooted in the past.

I would look at this attempt to re-write the Hadiths as both a bold and progressive step towards a reformation of Islam and a dangerous one for the Turkish government. However, if any country in the MIddle East can do this it will be the Turks. It is the country where the two great thrusts of civilization meet and ideas are fluid. The military is fiercely sectarian and loyal to the ideas of Kemal Attaturk and I do not believe they would ever allow the imposition of Sharia. The greatest danger to the Turks in this effort is not the fundamentalists - it is the Europeans and their insistence that the military stay out of it if they are to be allowed into the European Union.

Within Islam this will be a long and ongoing struggle against the forces of stagnation, against the Wahabbist tradition that only the constant work of moderate forces within Islam and with the support of the West will overcome. This Turkish effort for me is a hopeful sign.

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