Slidey
But pieces of what?
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2004
- Messages
- 6,600
- Gender
- Male
- HSC
- 2005
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7264903.stm
But Turkey, despite its shady past (Armenian genocide and Invasion of Cyprus) has never been what you'd consider a typical Muslim country. It's both secular and a democracy (no Sharia Law). It provides legal protection for homosexuals, has an 80% literacy rate for women (high for a Muslim country), bans headscarves in schools, universities and government buildings, and does not allow the creation of religious schools.
A rather radical, progressive and astounding move for a 99.8% Muslim country.[...]
An adviser to the project, Felix Koerner, says some of the sayings - also known individually as "hadiths" - can be shown to have been invented hundreds of years after the Prophet Muhammad died, to serve the purposes of contemporary society.
"Unfortunately you can even justify through alleged hadiths, the Muslim - or pseudo-Muslim - practice of female genital mutilation," he says.
"You can find messages which say 'that is what the Prophet ordered us to do'. But you can show historically how they came into being, as influences from other cultures, that were then projected onto Islamic tradition."
The argument is that Islamic tradition has been gradually hijacked by various - often conservative - cultures, seeking to use the religion for various forms of social control.
Leaders of the Hadith project say successive generations have embellished the text, attributing their political aims to the Prophet Muhammad himself.
[...]
But Turkey, despite its shady past (Armenian genocide and Invasion of Cyprus) has never been what you'd consider a typical Muslim country. It's both secular and a democracy (no Sharia Law). It provides legal protection for homosexuals, has an 80% literacy rate for women (high for a Muslim country), bans headscarves in schools, universities and government buildings, and does not allow the creation of religious schools.
Still, Turkey is an important seat of Islamic power, so for such a place to move for such vibrant and positive reform of Islam is, to me, heartening.A strict headscarf ban had been in force in Turkish universities since 1997. The ban came after the staunchly secularist military exerted pressure to oust a government it saw as too Islamist.