Reforming Islam - Turkey gives it a try
Posted by: McQ
This article is a couple of days old, but is an extremely interesting look at Turkey's attempt to change, or at least revise, the Hadith, "the second most sacred text in Islam after the Koran." The Hadith is a collection of sayings attributed to the Prophet Mohammed and the source of many disputes concerning jihad and the religion in general.
Turkey is preparing to publish a document that represents a revolutionary reinterpretation of Islam - and a controversial and radical modernisation of the religion.
The country's powerful Department of Religious Affairs has commissioned a team of theologians at Ankara University to carry out a fundamental revision of the Hadith, the second most sacred text in Islam after the Koran.
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As such, it is the principal guide for Muslims in interpreting the Koran and the source of the vast majority of Islamic law, or Sharia.
But the Turkish state has come to see the Hadith as having an often negative influence on a society it is in a hurry to modernise, and believes it responsible for obscuring the original values of Islam.
It says that a significant number of the sayings were never uttered by Muhammad, and even some that were need now to be reinterpreted.
One can imagine, among traditional and extremist sects of the religion, how that is going to be accepted. And given the excitement level they can generate over cartoons, does anyone doubt the possible inflammatory nature of this sort of an undertaking?
I certainly understand the point (and, we all know the history of religious reformation):
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 you have to wonder, in today's atmosphere and especially in the world of Islam, how such a project will be met.
According to Fadi Hakura, an expert on Turkey from Chatham House in London, Turkey is doing nothing less than recreating Islam - changing it from a religion whose rules must be obeyed, to one designed to serve the needs of people in a modern secular democracy.
He says that to achieve it, the state is fashioning a new Islam.
"This is kind of akin to the Christian Reformation," he says.
"Not exactly the same, but if you think, it's changing the theological foundations of [the] religion. "
Fadi Hakura believes that until now secularist Turkey has been intent on creating a new politics for Islam.
Now, he says, "they are trying to fashion a new Islam."
Significantly, the "Ankara School" of theologians working on the new Hadith have been using Western critical techniques and philosophy.
They have also taken an even bolder step - rejecting a long-established rule of Muslim scholars that later (and often more conservative) texts override earlier ones.
"You have to see them as a whole," says Fadi Hakura.
"You can't say, for example, that the verses of violence override the verses of peace. This is used a lot in the Middle East, this kind of ideology.
"I cannot impress enough how fundamental [this change] is."
As I said, this is going to be fascinating to monitor. Many of us, myself included, have said that in order for Islam to adapt itself to the current century, it will require a reformation. Is this the effort that will achieve that? Or, in a community presently dominated by the traditionalists and the extremists, will this be viewed as heresy and do more harm than good?
AI
