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September 29, 2007
The Islamic Case for a Secular State -I-
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
One reason why Turkey's secularist elite is so obsessed with religious practice is their concern about the secularity of the state. If a society becomes more religious, they believe, then the secular system will be less secure. If more Turks follow God's orders in daily life, they ask themselves, why shouldn't they impose them on others using state power?
There is, to be frank, some justification for this worry. There are religious tyrannies in the Muslim world which impose their narrow interpretation of Islam to their citizens. Moreover, there have been groups and individuals in Turkey who talk about doing the same thing.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 12:15 PM | Comments (3)
September 28, 2007
Cartoons of Muhammad and Clash of Civilizations
[Originally published in in Swedish in the Göteborg-Posten, and Turkish Daily News ]
As if we haven't had enough troubles with the Danish cartoon crisis of 2005, yet another one erupted recently in Sweden. Artist Lars Vilks pictured a cartoon showing Prophet Muhammad's head on the body of a dog, and the daily Nerikes Allehanda published it Aug. 19. Not too surprisingly, many Muslims found the depiction highly insulting. Demonstrators took the streets in Pakistan and burnt a Swedish flag. Egypt, Pakistan and Iran made diplomatic protests. And just recently, Al Qaeda in Iraq offered a $100,000 reward for anyone who kills Vilks.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 12:01 PM | Comments (1)
September 23, 2007
Ibn-Khaldoun Essay Contest
Here is a brief note: The Atlas Foundation is organizing the second Ibn-Khaldoun Essay Contest and I strongly advise young writers to consider joining it. Islamic world needs to focus on the means of creating economic prosperity, and the best medium for that, as Islamic scholar Ibn-Khaldoun argued centuries ago, is based on free markets and limited governments. It is time to rediscover that wisdom and apply to modern realities.
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 6:25 PM | Comments (1)
September 20, 2007
Why Are We a Nation Obsessed with the Headscarf?
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
To most outside observers the scene must be looking pretty bizarre: Thousands of otherwise reasonable men and women in this country, who make up much of the social elite, are having panic attacks in the face of the possibility that Turkish universities might tolerate their students wearing the Islamic headscarf. Virtually everyday, bureaucrats, pundits and even university rectors lash out against the proposed article in the proposed constitution to set the headscarf free. "This will be the end of the secular republic," they passionately claim, without realizing that a secular republic that doesn't respect the rights and liberties of its citizens is called a secular tyranny.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:02 AM | Comments (4)
September 15, 2007
Why Kurds Like President Gül?
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
In the past five decades of Turkish political history, never has so much been hoped for by so many from so few.
The so few I am referring to are the leaders of the AKP government, and the ex-AKP politician, President Abdullah Gül. And the so many I am speaking about are the millions of Turkish citizens who have felt that they have been pushed aside and looked down upon by the state. Some of them are practicing Muslims who yearn for wider religious freedom, and some are Kurds who aspire for broader civil liberties.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 12:06 PM | Comments (0)
And the Winner Is... Muezzin Isa Aydın
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
EDIRNE — The magnificent Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, in Turkey's northwestern end, has hosted millions of prayers since the late 16th century, when the great Ottoman architect Sinan built it. But last Sunday the splendid shrine hosted an usual event: an “ezan contest,” during which 10 competing muezzins (ezan-reciters) performed the Muslim call for prayer with all their artistic skills in order to win the financially modest but spiritually invaluable prize.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:48 AM | Comments (9)
September 13, 2007
The Opium of the Atheists
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
KRYNICA-ZDROJ — This little Polish town not only has a name hard to pronounce, but it is also quite difficult to reach. In order to arrive at this nice spa resort, you need to first fly to Warsaw, then take another plane to Krakow, and then drive for more than 200 kilometers. Yet this long and winding – and nowadays heavily raining – road apparently does not prevent thousands of people to meet here every September for what they call “the Davos of Central-Eastern Europe:” The Krynica Economic Forum, which brings together top-level politicians including heads of state, and businessmen from Central Europe, the former Soviet Union and many other places.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:57 AM | Comments (2)
Tidings of Comfort, Joy and Ramadan
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Today you might have made your breakfast before taking a copy of the Turkish Daily News, and might even be sipping coffee while reading this story. For hundreds of millions of Muslims all around the world, though, that would be out of question. Today is the first day of the holy month of Ramadan, and all observant Muslims are expected to refrain from eating and drinking until sunset. It is a religious duty which has been kept unbroken since the 7th century.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:03 AM | Comments (2)
September 9, 2007
Abdullah Gül, a Muslim Modernizer
[Originally published in The Washington Times]
The election of Abdullah Gul as Turkey's 11th president has attracted quite a lot of attention in the world, and there are good reasons for that. Although Turkey is a predominantly Muslim nation, its leaders, and especially presidents, once were people with secular, not Islamic, lifestyles. Yet Mr. Gul is a practicing Muslim, and his similarly devout wife, Hayrunnisa Gul, wears the Islamic headscarf. Hence some people wonder whether this God-fearing First Couple symbolizes a setback in Turkey's two-century-old quest for modernization.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:10 AM | Comments (1)
September 6, 2007
An Open Letter to the Turkish Military
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Dear generals,
We Turks have been through quite a political turmoil in the past five months, which escalated especially with your famous secularism warning that appeared on your official Web site on the night of Apr. 27. Since then, Turkey had a very tense and nervous election campaign, held a very popular election, and elected a new president. The widespread hope is that we have come out of the crisis, have passed the political bottleneck, and are heading toward a more normal period. I very much share that optimism, but I also think that we have to reflect on what just happened in our country, and draw some lessons.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:21 AM | Comments (4)
September 2, 2007
The Koran and Non-Muslims—Facts Versus Myths
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Many years ago, I came across a book, which claimed to explain “Israeli terrorism” in the light of the Hebrew Scriptures. It was full of photos showing Israeli soldiers attacking and harassing Palestinians, and presented huge captions that included verses from the Old Testament, and especially the Book of Joshua. If the Israelis were breaking the bones of a Palestinian youngster — a globally notorious scene from the ‘80s — then the caption would include a verse with something like “Thou shall break their bones.” The book's argument was blunt and simple: The Israelis were torturing a nation because that was what their religion ordered them to do.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:31 AM | Comments (15)
