Faith Matters

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Will Non-Muslims Go To Heaven, Too?

Sunday, October 12th, 2008

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

WARSAW – I was walking heedlessly in the Old Quarter of the Polish capital last Sunday until I saw a group of joyful singers on the street. Then I stopped and stared. They were about a dozen young Poles who were singing and clapping in the middle of a busy street and in the midst of a bitter cold. Soon, I realized that their art was very much related to their faith. As evangelical Catholics — a category which I just learnt that exits — they were praising God and calling on other people to do the same.

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Posted in Change within Islam, Faith Matters, Highly Recommended, Islam & Muslims, Rethinking The West | 18 Responses »

Does The Secular Mind Beat The Religious One?

Thursday, June 19th, 2008

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Thanks to the new liberal daily Taraf, we now know that a bureaucratic Turkish cabal called the “Republican Working Committee” has been working on yet another “soft coup” project for quite some time. It seems to have started in 2003, when 15 die-hard secular university rectors held a secret meeting with Gen. Şener Eruygur, the commander of the Gendarmerie. They all agreed to fasten the internal struggle against the “backwardees.” (That term, “mürteci” in Turkish, refers to conservative and observant Muslims, such as the women in headscarf.) The group emphasized the need to convert the “young backwardees” when they are at primary school age, and to crack down on their parents within state structure. Taraf writes that these ultra-secular rectors even swore to be martyrs for this unholy war to save the holy Republic from religion.

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Posted in Faith Matters, Fundamentalism (Secular) | 2 Responses »

‘Fitna’ Is Fanatical—But It Deserves a Voice

Saturday, April 5th, 2008

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

I just saw “Fitna,” the new controversial film produced by Geert Wilders, head of the Dutch Freedom Party. The 17-minute video shows acts of violence, and expressions of hatred, by Muslims against “infidels.” Heads are cut off, bodies are blown apart, children are taught to denounce Jews as “apes and pigs,” imams call for world domination, and protesters hold signs that read, “God Bless Hitler.”

What makes all this disturbing scenery even more provocative, and, in a sense, more meaningful, is the way they are connected to the Koran. After each instance of ferocity, “Fitna” quotes a passage from the Muslim Scripture which, apparently, presents a justification.

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Posted in Faith Matters, Fundamentalism (Islamic), Highly Recommended | 15 Responses »

The Religious Way To The Open Society

Thursday, March 27th, 2008

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]

NEW YORK – Peter Berger, one of the world’s leading authorities on sociology of religion, put in a nutshell what all secularists, and especially Turkey’s fuming ones, should get.

“Modernization does not necessarily secularize societies,” the Boston University professor noted, “it rather pluralizes them.”

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Posted in Change within Islam, Faith Matters, Islam & Muslims, Rethinking The West | 2 Responses »

Dawkins’ ‘Delusion’ Should Be Free

Thursday, December 6th, 2007

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Richard Dawkins is probably the world’s most famous atheist evangelist. In his numerous books, the Oxford zoologist argues that modern science, and in particular the Darwinian theory of evolution, has disproved God. He is a gifted writer, and his recent volume, The God Delusion, has become a global bestseller. Some call him “the Harry Potter of non-fiction.”
More recently Dr. Dawkins made the news in Turkey, too, yet not by his arguments. As the Turkish Daily News reported on Nov. 29, following a complaint by a Turkish reader that some passages in the The God Delusion were an assault on “sacred values,” an Istanbul prosecutor has opened an official investigation on the book’s Turkish version. Its publisher, Erol Karaaslan, is said be “questioned” soon.

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Posted in Faith Matters, Fundamentalism (Secular), Islam & Muslims, Science, Theism & Atheism, Unveiling Turkey | 7 Responses »

Yes, Muslims are Indeed ‘Christians’

Saturday, November 24th, 2007

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
In yesterday’s Turkish Daily News, there was a photo of a group of Turkish demonstrators who gathered in Istanbul’s Taksim Square and held a banner that read, “”We are all Christians!”” They were protesting against the attacks on Christian communities – and especially the savage slaughter of three missionaries in Malatya seven months ago by a gang of ultra-nationalist brutes.

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Posted in Faith Matters | 18 Responses »

The Opium of the Atheists

Thursday, September 13th, 2007

[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 in Faith Matters, Fundamentalism (Secular), Highly Recommended, Suggested Reading | 5 Responses »

Tidings of Comfort, Joy and Ramadan

Thursday, September 13th, 2007

[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 in Faith Matters, Islam & Muslims | 2 Responses »

The Koran and Non-Muslims—Facts Versus Myths

Sunday, September 2nd, 2007

[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 in Change within Islam, Faith Matters, Fundamentalism (Islamic), Fundamentalism (Secular), Islam & Muslims | 15 Responses »

In Defense Of Mary The Virgin

Tuesday, January 18th, 2005

[Originally published in Islam Online]

In their recent books entitled Mary: The Mother of Jesus and Mary: A Dogmatic Journey, two “Catholic” writers, the journalist Jacques Duquesne and the theologian Dominique Cerbelaud, display an overt disbelief in the virginity of Mary the mother of Jesus Christ. Mr. Duquesne argues that it is a belief that is “not compatible with science.” Mr. Cerbelaud asserts that the faith in the virgin birth came about “for reasons that spring from collective psychology.”

I believe both arguments to be inconsistent and based on a flawed understanding of science. Before explaining these, however, let me elaborate on why the virgin birth matters for me — since some non-Muslims might wonder why a Muslim cares about this controversy at all.
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Posted in Faith Matters | 5 Responses »

The Parliament of The World’s Religions and The Axis of Theism

Tuesday, January 11th, 2005

[Originally published in The New Pantagruel]

On July 7-13, 2004, in the beautiful city of Barcelona, there was an extraordinary international meeting that gathered some seven thousand people from all over the world. The meeting was for The Parliament of the World’s Religions and the attendees were believers from all different kind of traditions. From many denominations of Christians, Jews and Muslims to Buddhist, Sikhs, Hindus or even self-proclaimed pagans, it was truly a global coverage of the world’s faiths. During the seven days of the Parliament, hundreds of lectures, workshops, panels, concerts, prayers and rituals were performed.
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Posted in Faith Matters | No Responses »

Why Muslims Should Support Intelligent Design

Tuesday, September 14th, 2004

[Originally published in Islam Online]

I have traveled a lot around the US and the UK, lecturing to Muslim audiences. One common trait I have noticed is the concern Muslims feel for the future of their children. Several conferences I attended had topics such as “Saving Our Families” or “How To Raise Our Children As Good Muslims.” The reason for this concern is obvious: These Muslim families are living in a highly secularized society that has cultural traits that are destructive to traditional values. The profane culture of MTV, pornography, consumerism and hedonism — what political scientist Benjamin Barber calls the “The McWorld” — is at odds with Muslim values.
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Posted in Faith Matters, Rethinking The West, Science, Theism & Atheism | 3 Responses »

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