Turkey to Issue Re-Evalution of Islam

"Its supporters say the spirit of logic and reason inherent in Islam at its foundation 1,400 years ago are being rediscovered. Some believe it could represent the beginning of a reformation in the religion" - BBC

Islam, as most people know or should know, is around six hundred years behind Christianity and other western religions(Judaism ect.) in terms of its progressiveness. And so, in a partially politically motivated attempt to dispel European fears and make a bid for EU membership, Turkey will issue a new interpretation of the Hadiths. The Hadiths, the second holiest texts in Islam, are basically a guide for interpreting the Koran.



The BBC because it is a European news agency, and pre-occupied with appeasing Britiain's(and Europe's in general) unruly Muslim minorities*, is understandably blowing it all out of proportion. Keep in mind throughout the rest of the column that this is one government agency, in one country, issuing a recommended Hadith interpretation.

The new interpretations are unlikely to catch on in countries like Saudi Arabia(where it is illegal to build a church), Iran(where the government is controlled by a non-democratically elected fundamentalist ayatollah) or Sudan(where Christians and non-Muslims are in the midst of a government sponsored genocide).



Even in the less fundamentalist dominated Muslim states(fewer and farther between) these interpretations will take at least a few generations to catch any fire. Muslim culture is arguably even more dominated by reactionary fundamentalists than pre-reformation Europe. In Europe there was not much worry of outside influences corrupting the Church; Islam's fundamentalists today have been weeding out horrible progressive ideas for at least a generation.

The Hadiths supposedly were all written by Muhammad. Felix Koerner, however, claims that some "can be shown to have been invented hundreds of years after the Prophet Muhammad died, to serve the purposes of contemporary society." The article then skips(the BBC does this a lot) to Koerner talking about how some Hadiths justify female genital mutilation; whether these were actually written by Muhammad the BBC conveniently leaves out.

Impressively, they didn't entirely miss the target. The realized that many of the 1,400 yr old Hadiths are no longer relevant and will be removed, an important step.

But basically the article can be summed up as this. A great thing, blown one thousand times out of proportion. The BBC is doing a disservice to the original Britons by publishing this type of article. People on the left will gobble it up, and it will be easier to ignore the fact that right now extra-legal Sharia Law Courts are being set up in the country.

We have a long way to go before we see an Islam committed to progressive principles, at least fifty years until the oil money runs out and from then probably a hundred years before we see a new religion. A religion not committing genocides around the world, subjugating over 50% of its population to discriminatory laws worse than Jim Crow in the US or sponsoring terror and honor killings.


- Spero


The BBC Reports - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7264903.stm

*