Does John Lewis even now anything about Turkey at all?

Submitted by sims01 (United States), May 28, 2008 at 10:15

The very fact that this project is being undertaken by the Turkish government signals the rise of Islamic rule in Turkey. Any government that purports to decide which religious interpretation is "correct" has established a theocracy.

There is a state agency called diyanet isleri (literally "religious affairs") in Turkey. Their interpretations of Koran and Islam sets the standard for all the Imams in the country. They publish state sanctioned books and actually pay the salaries of the said Imams. In fact even the friday sermons given by the Imams are largely written by this agency.

Now here is the kicker: it was not established under the current Islamist administration of Turkey. It was established during the first years of the republic. What they had in mind was keeping religious fanaticism at bay and out of political and public life. Before that, ottomans had a similar system. I am not sure if Mr. Lewis knows even these basic facts.

Then he goes on to give us verses from Koran which are incompatible with modern standards of human rights , ethics , governance etc which is true enough. Those can be said of almost any religious text though. With the same train of though, old testament advocates genocide. And lots of it, which is as grievous as it gets.It is the interpretation and practice that matter.

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