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September 28, 2006

The Mutual Distrust Between East & West

Tom Heneghan, the religion editor of Reuters, has recently written a good analysis of how the Pope's controversial remarks about Islam are perceived in the Muslim world. The Istanbul-based story titled "Both sides feel threats in Pope-Islam row" includes the following comments from me:

Both sides feel threatened and insulted," said Mustafa Akyol, an Istanbul commentator on Muslim affairs. "Muslims see this as part of a whole campaign, in the same line as the Afghan and Iraq wars and Abu Ghraib," he said, "In the West, they think they're under attack by 'jihad' and an intolerant Muslim religion…"

Akyol said only small minorities on either side actually wanted a clash, but the reasonable dialogue needed to understand each other requires a calm he cannot now see. "People here tell me I'm wasting my time," said Akyol, who describes himself as a moderate Muslim. "They say the Westerners have made up their mind. We're the new enemy after communism and they only want to take Muslim oil. Unless we calm down, it will only get worse."

Thanks to Tom Heneghan for this good summary of my views.

Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 2:40 PM | Comments (3)

September 8, 2006

Sanity Versus The New McCarthyism

The understandable concerns Westerners have today about radical Islamism sometimes goes to awkward extremes. Some self-styled "experts" on Islam argue that radical Islamism is equivalent to the Muslim faith and that all Muslims are inherently hostile against other cultures. This new type of McCarthyism is actually the mirror image of radical Islamism, because it depicts "the other side" as a monolithic enemy, whereas it is in fact exceedingly diverse.

In a recent online symposium organized by The FrontPage Magazine, a Mr. Fjordman gives a perfect example of this narrow understanding of Islam — or, in other words, Islamophobia. "I do not believe there is such thing as a moderate Islam," says Mr. Fjordman, "We are fooling ourselves with talk about peaceful coexistence with Islam."

Another participant of the symposium is Claire Berlinski , a well-established American Jewish writer who is currently living in Istanbul — and who is a personal friend of mine. Her reply to Mr. Fjordman is a very basic and needed call to sanity:

Continue reading "Sanity Versus The New McCarthyism"

Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 4:00 PM | Comments (0)

September 4, 2006

Akyol/Matzke Debate on Darwinism vs. ID

The popular Muslim website IslamOnline.net has organized an online debate on "Evolution vs. Intelligent Design" between Mustafa Akyol and Nicholas Matzke, spokesman for the US-based National Center for Science Education. Akyol and Matzke have responded to questions forwarded by the readers, as well as countering each other's arguments.

The first part of the debate is available here. The second part, which was much more detailed and extensive, is available here.

The full text of the whole debate is also available down below.

Continue reading "Akyol/Matzke Debate on Darwinism vs. ID"

Posted by Web Master at 12:24 PM | Comments (1)