about Atatürk's approach regarding the Caliphate issue, and the naivety of some US Islamologists:

Submitted by Tarık Gunersel (Turkey), Mar 25, 2017 at 03:16

Dear Daniel Pipes, and all other concerned Earthlings,

Here is an outline of the approach of Atatürk, to whose secularism I owe a lot -among tens of millions of other Turkish citizens:

1) The position of Caliphate has to be discontinued due to its organic connection to the ('now past') Ottoman regime. Under the Ottoman rule, whoever became the Sultan automatically became the Caliphate as part of the "from father to son" process, which was not something Mohamad advised anyway.

2) The Great National Assembly of Turkey, (Parliament) will have the authority regarding the position.

3) Atatürk added: If, in the future, the Islamic countries become independent and form an autonomous platform, then they can elect a Caliphate, which will be a democratic process.

If Turkish speaking (and reading) people can read the Turkish translations (necessarily with interpretations) of the Qur'an, it is thanks to Atatürk; prior to him, no Turkish translation was available.

Atatürk emphasized the vitality of scientific thinking and arts; in 1937, in his last speech in Parliament he said: "We do not take our principles from the books supposedly sent from above; we are against dogmas; we take our principles from life, and they can change."

Best wishes,

Tarik Günersel
www.tarikgunersel.com/en

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