Eurasian nations introduced to Turkish Islamic traditions
Güncelleme Tarihi:
by Mustafa Akyol
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mayıs 16, 2009 00:00
ISTANBUL - As part of Turkey’s attempts to extend its influence in Eurasia, it calls together a council where Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan emphasizes the importance given to knowledge and wisdom in the Islamic tradition, while expressing his regrets that ’this virtuous religion has, unfortunately, recently been associated with violence.’ To change this tragic misconception, he says, the Islamic world needs wise leaders
Istanbul’s Intercontinental Hotel, famous for its chic roof bar and quality cocktails, hosted an unconventional crowd this week, with the usual bourgeois clientele joined by dozens of bearded men wearing long tunics and big turbans.
The new guests were imams and other Islamic leaders from 42 different countries, from Poland to Mongolia, hosted by Turkey’s Religious of Directorate Affairs, or "the Diyanet," as it is known in Turkish, as part of the 7th Euro-Asian Islamic Council.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan opened the four-day council, called a "şura" in Turkish in line with the Koranic concept of "consultation," with an address on Tuesday. Erdoğan emphasized the importance given to knowledge and wisdom in the Islamic tradition, while expressing his regrets that "this virtuous religion has, unfortunately, recently been associated with violence." To change this tragic misconception, he said, the Islamic world needs wise leaders and scholars.
"This geography needs, in other words, people like you," Erdoğan told the audience of more than 80 religious men.
The prime minister’s words served as a good summary of the main idea behind the organization: Turkey is not happy with the extremist strains in the contemporary Muslim world and wants to play a role in reclaiming Islam from them. This is true especially for the Eurasia region, which includes many former Soviet Republics that are trying to re-cultivate their faiths after a long period of atheist suppression.
"Eighty years of communist rule have diluted the Islamic knowledge and tradition in these countries," said Dr. Mehmet Görmez, vice president of the Diyanet and the person responsible for the institution’s international relations. "When these countries opened up, some ideological distortions of our faith tried to fill the vacuum. What we want in return is to revitalize the Islamic wisdom that enlightened these countries centuries ago."
Görmez is also responsible for the "hadith project" that the Diyanet has been working on since 2006. This project has attracted worldwide attention as it revises and re-interprets the hadiths, or sayings, of the Prophet Mohammed in a way that aims to keep them from being interpreted in bigoted, and, especially, misogynistic ways.
According to Görmez, modern theologians have better tools with which to analyze the sources of Islam than did their classical counterparts. "Imam Bukhari, who collected thousands of hadiths, did not have the chance to load 200,000 of them into a computer to compare and crosscheck them," he said. "But now we can do that anytime."
In one of the sessions, Görmez explained the project to council participants. "Our guests were very interested in what we are doing," he said. "This is not a reform, as some have called it. We are putting the prophet’s words in their historical context." An Arabic booklet explaining the aims and methodology of the hadith was also distributed to participants.
The chairman of the şura was Diyanet President Dr. Ali Bardakoğlu, who is known for modernizing the institution and making it much more active, both in Turkey and abroad. A professor of theology, Bardakoğlu has taken liberal positions on controversial issues such as the rights of non-Muslims to evangelize their faith, or the rights of secular people to live according to their cultural norms. His institution has recently translated the Koran into Kurdish and opened an office in Brussels in order to share’s Turkey’s Islamic heritage with European Muslims, among other bold projects.
Renowned Eurasians
Council participants included some of the best-known names in Eurasian Islam, such as Imam Mustafa Ceric, the spiritual leader of Bosnian Muslims, and Imam Ravil Gaynuddin, the chairman of the Council of Muftis of Russia. The latter touched upon the idea of "jihad," or "struggle," in his speech. "Today, our jihad should be against the misunderstanding of Islam, against those who wish to stain our religion by their bigotry," Gaynuddin said.
According to Görmez, what Muslims need today is a more open-minded understanding of their traditions and the contemporary world. "Earlier Muslims self-confidently used the knowledge they learned from ancient Greece, Persia, Byzantium or India," he said. "Now there is even more knowledge out there in the world."
The four-day council included several sessions in which such views were discussed, along with other issues such as the restoration of religious sites. The consistent theme was Turkey’s efforts to reach out to European, Balkan, Caucasus and Central Asian communities of Islam in order to help solve their problems and rebuild their traditions. "We will continue to give scholarships to students of theology from all these countries," said Bardakoğlu. "We are dedicated to helping our brothers, to learning from their experiences and share our own.
The new guests were imams and other Islamic leaders from 42 different countries, from Poland to Mongolia, hosted by Turkey’s Religious of Directorate Affairs, or "the Diyanet," as it is known in Turkish, as part of the 7th Euro-Asian Islamic Council.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan opened the four-day council, called a "şura" in Turkish in line with the Koranic concept of "consultation," with an address on Tuesday. Erdoğan emphasized the importance given to knowledge and wisdom in the Islamic tradition, while expressing his regrets that "this virtuous religion has, unfortunately, recently been associated with violence." To change this tragic misconception, he said, the Islamic world needs wise leaders and scholars.
"This geography needs, in other words, people like you," Erdoğan told the audience of more than 80 religious men.
The prime minister’s words served as a good summary of the main idea behind the organization: Turkey is not happy with the extremist strains in the contemporary Muslim world and wants to play a role in reclaiming Islam from them. This is true especially for the Eurasia region, which includes many former Soviet Republics that are trying to re-cultivate their faiths after a long period of atheist suppression.
"Eighty years of communist rule have diluted the Islamic knowledge and tradition in these countries," said Dr. Mehmet Görmez, vice president of the Diyanet and the person responsible for the institution’s international relations. "When these countries opened up, some ideological distortions of our faith tried to fill the vacuum. What we want in return is to revitalize the Islamic wisdom that enlightened these countries centuries ago."
Görmez is also responsible for the "hadith project" that the Diyanet has been working on since 2006. This project has attracted worldwide attention as it revises and re-interprets the hadiths, or sayings, of the Prophet Mohammed in a way that aims to keep them from being interpreted in bigoted, and, especially, misogynistic ways.
According to Görmez, modern theologians have better tools with which to analyze the sources of Islam than did their classical counterparts. "Imam Bukhari, who collected thousands of hadiths, did not have the chance to load 200,000 of them into a computer to compare and crosscheck them," he said. "But now we can do that anytime."
In one of the sessions, Görmez explained the project to council participants. "Our guests were very interested in what we are doing," he said. "This is not a reform, as some have called it. We are putting the prophet’s words in their historical context." An Arabic booklet explaining the aims and methodology of the hadith was also distributed to participants.
The chairman of the şura was Diyanet President Dr. Ali Bardakoğlu, who is known for modernizing the institution and making it much more active, both in Turkey and abroad. A professor of theology, Bardakoğlu has taken liberal positions on controversial issues such as the rights of non-Muslims to evangelize their faith, or the rights of secular people to live according to their cultural norms. His institution has recently translated the Koran into Kurdish and opened an office in Brussels in order to share’s Turkey’s Islamic heritage with European Muslims, among other bold projects.
Renowned Eurasians
Council participants included some of the best-known names in Eurasian Islam, such as Imam Mustafa Ceric, the spiritual leader of Bosnian Muslims, and Imam Ravil Gaynuddin, the chairman of the Council of Muftis of Russia. The latter touched upon the idea of "jihad," or "struggle," in his speech. "Today, our jihad should be against the misunderstanding of Islam, against those who wish to stain our religion by their bigotry," Gaynuddin said.
According to Görmez, what Muslims need today is a more open-minded understanding of their traditions and the contemporary world. "Earlier Muslims self-confidently used the knowledge they learned from ancient Greece, Persia, Byzantium or India," he said. "Now there is even more knowledge out there in the world."
The four-day council included several sessions in which such views were discussed, along with other issues such as the restoration of religious sites. The consistent theme was Turkey’s efforts to reach out to European, Balkan, Caucasus and Central Asian communities of Islam in order to help solve their problems and rebuild their traditions. "We will continue to give scholarships to students of theology from all these countries," said Bardakoğlu. "We are dedicated to helping our brothers, to learning from their experiences and share our own.