[Co-authored with Zeyno Baran and originally published in National Review Online and Der Spiegel; also see The Muslim Manifesto website]
“Who are the moderate Muslims, and why do they not speak up?” After being asked this question over and over again since 9/11, particularly after the Danish cartoon crisis, we decided to propose the following Muslim Manifesto:
Recently, the disrespectful cartoons about Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) published in Jyllands-Posten resulted in an extreme reaction among many Muslims worldwide. While we understand the feelings of our co-religionists, we strongly urge them to refrain from rage and violence.
A zeal for Allah is rightful only when it is expressed in an enlightened manner, since Allah himself has ordained a restrained response. When the early Muslims were mocked by their pagan contemporaries, the Koran ordered not a violent backlash, but rather a civilized disapproval: “When you hear Allah’s verses being rejected and mocked at by people, you must not sit with them till they start talking of other things.” (Koran 4:140) The Koran also describes Muslims as “those who control their rage and pardon other people, [because] Allah loves the good-doers.” (3:134) Therefore all demonstrations against the mockery of Islam should be peaceful. All critiques of Islam should be countered not by threats and violence, but by rational counter-argument.
We also believe that terrorist acts can never be justified or excused. None of the challenges Muslims face, such as oppression or military occupation, can justify attacks against non-combatants. In the Holy Koran, Allah orders Muslims to “never let hatred of anyone lead you into the sin of deviating from justice.” (5:8) The true Islamic sense of justice is well-established in the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh); even in time of war let alone peace Muslim soldiers should never “kill the old, the infant, the child, or the woman.” Those who do so are not martyrs, but cold-blooded murderers.
Supported by the Koran’s affirmation that “there is no compulsion in religion” (2:256), we cherish religious liberty. Every human has the right to believe or not to believe in Islam or in any other religion All Muslims furthermore have the right to reject and change their religion if desired. No state, community or individual has a right to impose Islam on others. People should accept and practice Islam not because they are forced to do so, but because they believe in its teachings.
We support and cherish democracy not because we reject the sovereignty of the Almighty over people, but because we believe that this sovereignty is manifested in the general will of people in a democratic and pluralistic society. We do not accept theocratic rule-not because we do not wish to obey Allah, but because theocratic rule inevitably becomes rule by fallible (and sometimes corrupt and misguided) humans in the name of the infallible God.
We accept the legitimacy of the secular state and the secular law. Islamic law, or sharia, was developed at a time when Muslims were living in homogenous communities. In the modern world, virtually all societies are pluralistic, consisting of different faiths and of different perceptions of each faith, including Islam. In this pluralistic setting, a legal system based on a particular version of a single religion cannot be imposed on all citizens. Thus, a single secular law, open to all religions but based on none, is strongly needed.
We believe that women have the same inalienable rights as men. We strongly denounce laws and attitudes in some Islamic societies that exclude women from society by denying them the rights of education, political participation and the individual pursuit of happiness. Like men, women should have the right to decide how they will live, dress, travel, marry and divorce; if they do not enjoy these rights, they are clearly second-class citizens.
We believe that there is no contradiction between religious and national identities. Any Muslim should be able to embrace the citizenship of any modern secular state while maintaining feelings of spiritual solidarity with the umma, the global Muslim community.
We regard Christianity and Judaism as sister faiths in the common family of Abrahamic monotheism. We strongly denounce anti-Semitism, which has been alien to Islam for many centuries but which unfortunately has gained popularity among some Muslims in recent decades. We accept Israel’s right to exist, as well as the justified aspiration of the Palestinian people for a sovereign state and hope that a just two-state solution in Israel/Palestine will bring peace to the Holy Land.
In short, we strongly disagree with and condemn those who promote or practice tyranny and violence in the name of Islam. We hope that their misguided deeds will not blacken our noble religion which is indeed a path to God and a call for peace.
We encourage Muslim political, social, community and business leaders to contact us at [email protected] to sign onto the Manifesto so that the authentic peaceful and civilized message of Islam will be heard.
Mustafa Akyol is a writer and journalist based in Turkey; Zeyno Baran is director of International Security and Energy Programs at The Nixon Center.
Dear Mutafa Akyol: Respectfully I have to say the following. You have written,”We believe that there is no contradiction between religious and national identities. Any Muslim should be able to embrace the citizenship of any modern secular state while maintaining feelings of spiritual solidarity with the umma, the global Muslim community.”
How can you justify Muslims to be citizen of a secular State and justify killing of Muslims (or people of any other religon)without out any provocation, because it is in the national interest. A Muslim living in a Muslim country finds his relgious and national interests go together, but that may not be always the case living in secular State.
2- You said”Supported by the Koran’s affirmation that “there is no compulsion in religion” (2:256), we cherish religious liberty.”
Then do you also cherish the right of women in Turkey to wear Hijab and enjoy every other right that “modern” women, who denounce hijab, enjoy?
3- Your stand against anti-Semitism is commendable as Islam and Muslims have always been compassionate with Jews when they lived under Muslim rule (such as in Muslim Spain), but what about the anti-Islamic stand of many ‘civlized’ nations, where press is allowed to demonize and insult Islam and Muslims in the name freedom of speech. Is that commendable too? Please comment
Nice try! But unfortunately there are numerous passages in the koran argueing differently… Many muslims are intolerant and thus a threat for other societies, especially for the Jewish society. From my point of view it is impossible to cure the fanatic muslims from their hatred towards “non-believers”. I wish it would be differently…
Dear Mustafa,
I thank you for this manifesto, I have read the German version in “Spiegel Online”. I find it a hearty and wise statement to live together in beauty and piece in this world, regardless of personal beliefs. I find it further interesting that it could just be applied to catholics, protestants and other confessions, I think it is just valid for everybody.
I do not belief in a particular confession but in beauty, love, one-hearted and wholy people. I think those you find everywhere on this planet, in every relegion and in every country.
Thank you & Let us walk in beauty.
Karl
Dear Mustafa,
congratulations!
The “Muslim Manifesto Against Violence & Tyranny In The Name of Islam” is one of the most inspiring and actualy needed words I heard/read in the whole “clash of the cultures”-discussion.
For myself, I lived in some countries and I learnd to accept cultural and philosophical differeces between any individuals. I belive, and I think that the history is the best example, that violence will never get anything accepted. And we can’t turn back the time to none-multiple-societies.
Now I’ll hope you will find a way to force the Manifesto, and many advocates, specially in the muslims.
Anyday peace will succeed!
David
Hi,
with your “Muslim Manifesto”
you give hope to many people and you gave me a feeling of great respect about this way of understanding and living islam
Thank you for the hope and for this great picture of islam and its people (i am sure, many of them are thinking this way)
Stefan Raabe
Dear Mr. Akyol,
just now I have read the text, you have written with Zeyno Baran and feel the need to let you know that I am very glad and happy to read such lines!
As far as I have understood your text, I agree with everything, although I am not a Muslim one. But I could loose my anxiety of all these people, who are always talking about Islam and mean indeed completely different stuff.
You lines let me hope that also the Islam can go through, what the christian religion already has done, the enlightment!
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THESE LINES!
Yeah, I am VERY, VERY thankful for that!
With heartly greetings from Cologne, Germany
Andreas Korn
Dear Mr. Akyol,
Your manifesto is very reassuring to a non Muslim such as me. I have no particular expertise in the Koran but I always thought that Muslims could think precisely as you and your associate so clearly and courageously declared recently.
So far we have heard only from those who brandish the Koran as an excuse for violence, as well as the actions of various organizations, including states, who condone and even encourage this attitude.
This highjacking of religion is disturbing because the religions have long been pillars of civility and sources of morality, and therefore valuable foundations of civilization. As such religions are precious, and deserve to be protected by state institutions instead of exploited by them.
Your manifesto will force those who advocate violence in the name of the Koran to try to justify their stand by waterver arguments they have to offer instead of perpetuating the implication that their attitude is somehow inevitable, or worse, universal!
Why should there be any reason why the Muslims cannot participate in the modern world, and bring their personal contributions to it? I salute your courage and your leadership.
God bless you! Dom.
Dear Mustafa Akyol,
thank you for your good work.
Your Manifesto is the step in the right direction, and thats is what we need to get in touch with the muslim community.
I hope that muslims who stay in the western countries will discuss it in their communities, or even in their mosques.
Peter from D
muslime
Dear Mr. Akyol,
i have read your so called manifesto in “der Spiegel”. Though i agree with you in most of your points i would like to point out, that you obviously bow to the definition brought upon you as muslim from mostly non-muslims:
You don’t define yourself as ‘what am I’, but ‘what am I not’! This way you denounce violent protests, violence towards non-combatants, you don’t want any theocracy (this is a very broad term, since most ‘democracies’ rely on religious scriptures or what is called the ‘christian-jewish heritage’ or would you call britain a theocracy?) and you don’t like Antisemitism. But what are you? Why don’t you write, that ‘violence’ to _protect_ ones own land or family is demanded!? Why don’t you differentiate when talking about the ‘sharia’ and show for example that the ‘sharia’ was one of the things protecting non-muslims in the islamic state?
I would have liked to read a ballanced article. With this article i think you’re just blaming ‘the other’ muslims without giving any explanation to what the moderate muslim might realisitically be. The ‘players’ of the media and politics game ‘good muslim’ – ‘bad muslim’ will thrive on this.
greetings,
Omar
Dear Mr. Bayunus,
Thanks for your comment.
Of course, I don’t justify “killing of Muslims (or people of any other religon) without out any provocation”. National interests are justified only if they are in line with basic human rights.
And, I of course denounce secular despotism. Pelase read this piece, my critique of Turkey’s ban on the headscarf:
http://www.thewhitepath.com/archives/2005/10/turkey_and_headscarf.php
And I of course denounce Islamophobia. I denounced the cartoons of Prophet Muhammad here:
http://www.thewhitepath.com/archives/2006/02/clash_of_civilizations_over_euro_cartoons.php
Dear MR. Abo-Namous,
Thanks for your comment.
This piece was intended to show what Islam is not. Of course there are millons of other issues to be pointed, and we need to show what Islam is, too. But this was not the focus of this specific piece. I have addressed other issues in my other writings.
Best regards,
Mustafa Akyol
Dear Mr. Akyol:
I agree completely with your article. Since the 911 terrorist attacks I have argued that moderate Muslims must stand up against the fanatics that are trying to highjack the religion. Both Judaism and Christianity were violent in their earlier years. As they matured the mainstream philosophy of both religions became pacifist. It is now time for Islam, youngest of the three, to do the same. I hope more voices like yours will bring this message to Muslims worldwide.
Your approach is humanistic and modern but at odds with the Islamic doctrine.
This causes lots of people to have a cognitive dissonance between what is taught through Islam and “occidental values”.
Lots of people are happy about your approach but their approach is quite naive and symptomatic of a lack of understandign of Islam.
As you pointed out in EARLY Islam the Qur’an ordered not to violently respond to mockery. But these are meccan suras, the tone in the ones that “came out” in Medina were quite different, very belligerant. I’m sure you know the ones like 9.29-30 5.33 etc etc. These ones are underscored by the Hadiths, in wich Mohamed clearly indicates that “Islam is there to dominate”. Even the Sira contradicts your view: You talk of justice, but have you never heard of the fate of the last Yew tribe of the Qurayza (you find in the Qur’an)? and of what happened to two “mockers” of Mohamed like bint Marwan (in the Sira) and kab bin al-Ashraf (Bukhari)?
You know better than myself that there are contradicting suras (this is why you should follow the last ones, that let the early ones evaporate…yes yes…God contradicts itself or doesn’t know the future!!…possible?) and that the exemple to be followed is the life of the profet…Qurayza and Marwan&al-Ashraf theach…
And not to annoy anyone, but this old story of 2.256 is always utilized by moderates muslims, but this is an abrogated sura.
So the problem is that you do not stand on ortodoxy while arguing this way.
Even the fact to compare Islam with the other abrahamic faiths is false. It cannot be the same God! bcs al-Ilah contradicts the God of the Yews and the evolution of the Revelation that you can find in the New Testament.
You might have good intentions but your ground is very very fragile, and this explains why the “jihadists” are fully utilizing the orthodox inputs coming from the Qur’an and the Hadits, while the counteroffensive is very rare and is based on no truth.
You should question your faith more and more, bcs your analisys stops at your good-will
Regards
echnaton
Saul Scheinbach
you are a little ignorant (that means “not knowing”) about Judaism and Christianity.
You should read the OT and the NT and study a little bit of history, bcs
a) your analysis is false
b) you are making an equivalence between history itself and the “Revelation” of both faiths.
This shows your logical fallancy.
Your assumption is just: “oh Islam comes 600years later, so it has to develop”…but this misses the point. the type of message that has been revealed. It is like comparing a sheep with a wolf.
Studieren Sie bitte ein bisschen mehr!
Dear Echnaton,
Thanks for your comment. I had addressed your points before, here:
http://www.thewhitepath.com/archives/2004/10/still_standing_for_islam_and_against_terrorism.php
Best regards,
M.A.
Hello i read your article,
It is noble from you to act the way you do, but
Echnaton,
[qoute]By the way you know that without this aknowlegement Turchey can say good by to Europe
Muzmin
you are off topic, and what you are saying is just your opinion. Respectable but nothing more.
there are no hard facts you are presenting.
You are right, it is (as well) about geography: almost everywhere where we have Islam there are some kind of problems, doesn’t it tell you anything?
You have you never read a fatwa?! have you never read the justifications of “the true muslims”?…this is why you still think the Qur’an is not the topic here!
You are utilizing the same arguments like al-zawahiri: the occident is “stealing” the resources of Islam. But do you know another product wich costs (for extraction) 3.5USD/barrel, and is sold at about 63USD?This gives you a margin of +1700%!!! yes yes the occident is stealing!..oh you pooooor victim!
and about the EU: you made a logical fallancy: so if the EU will not exist anymore in some years why is Turkey trying to apply for?…
and for the genocide: you try to evade the historical facts…a genocide is a genocide even if it were 1000years ago…what kind of argument is this!!!
Turkey has a problem with its pride, real good and honest people admit their faults. THis makes them big. Everyone else is not a man but just a little mouse
Echnaton,
[quote]you are off topic, and what you are saying is just your opinion. Respectable but nothing more.[/quote]
The feeling is mutual, then.
[quote]there are no hard facts you are presenting. You are right, it is (as well) about geography: almost everywhere where we have Islam there are some kind of problems, doesn’t it tell you anything?[/quote]
No, it doesn’t. Not what it tells *you*, anyway.
It’s only a problem when there’s something to grab from.
Consider East Timor of Indonesia. Nicely bitten off from Indonesia by Australians (with a little more than a little help from the US) just because it had reserves of oil in there.
You name a place where there’s a struggle, and one party (being representative of ‘freedom’) demonizes the other for being all sorts of baddest things, I’ll show you what the actual motives are… Look at Venezuela. It’s not Muslim by any measure, but their elected people are at the end of a barrel –gun barrel, not barrels of oil..
Why? The answer is, wait for it; Barrels of oil.
And, just to help highlight what’s a threat to the ‘West’, let’s take a brief look at Afgahnistan.
We [Turkey is amongst the troops in there, pimped by NATO] have invaded the place for what? That they were treating their own people bad, right?
What have we done so far? Installed a puppet government that is restricted to Kabul area, and are claiming Afghani girls can now go to school freeley. How many? We have no idea –some? certainly.
Did they have this problem under USSR rule, no. When did they begin to have that? When US-backed Taliban took over…
Oh, the irony.
And, for all the goodness of invasion, has there been a single acre reduction of opium agrigulture in Afghanistan. No. It has, in fact, reached record levels.
So, what good has come out of this?
Well, Afghanistan is a very strategic place to control the potential routes of oil and natural gas out of Central Asia.
This is the kind of humanitarian aspect of it all.
But, do please tell me more of how bad Muslims are or have been.
[quote]You have you never read a fatwa?! have you never read the justifications of “the true Muslims”?…this is why you still think the Qur’an is not the topic here![/quote]
We can turn this discussion into religious trivia if we want to. Or, rather, if you want to believe a fatwa is worth more than the paper it is written on…
But, it would be saner if you realized that almost every Tom, Dick and Harry (or with islamic-equivalent names) can issue a fatwa. Only those, from either camps (yourself included) will believe them.
Get this: there’s no central authority in Islam. Period.
[quote]You are utilizing the same arguments like al-zawahiri: the occident is “stealing” the resources of Islam. But do you know another product wich costs (for extraction) 3.5USD/barrel, and is sold at about 63USD?This gives you a margin of +1700%!!! yes yes the occident is stealing!..oh you pooooor victim![/quote]
You misunderstood almost everything I said. I am not saying the west is exploiting the oil producers –though there can be that claim by looking at the figures of cost and sales price. The ‘oil producers’ themselves don’t actually produce a thing. They are living on a piece of land that is abundant with a very desirable commodity.
All they are doing is charging the Seven Sisters (plus their siblings and off-springs) for the privilege of getting that stuff out of the ground.
So, in short, I don’t really have sympathy for ‘oil producers’ –they are all mostly lazy idiots who have not done a good job with the oodles of cash they have already accumulated all these years. Just look at wealth distribution charts in those countries. Pathetic.
But, what it is, in actuality, is this: Global competition has heated up immensely; and old-time allies have now found the need to keep the others in check so that one remains superior.
There’s not much else, other than petrol, that enables one side to keep all the others in check. You control the oil, and everyone else falls in line.
There’s an unfortunately a couple of problems in this; There are people living in that geography, and the rhetoric from the past stands in the way of unadulterated invasion of these lands –you have to convince your own public that you’re doing this in the name of good things (human rights, spreading democracy, rule of law etc.)..
We’re at that stage.
[quote]and about the EU: you made a logical fallancy: so if the EU will not exist anymore in some years why is Turkey trying to apply for?…[/quote]
Internal politics mainly… We do have more than our fair share of gullibles here, and they (those gullibles) think life will be much nicer when we join the EU –i.e. powers of the old guard, the Jacobites, the Kemalists etc.– will be kerbed.
Some politicians are playing that card –as long as there’s the carrot of EU, the old guard are unable to put up much of a resistance.
[quote]and for the genocide: you try to evade the historical facts…a genocide is a genocide even if it were 1000years ago…what kind of argument is this!!![/quote]
A genocide is most evident at the time nearest the actual event. The farther you get from it, the murkier it gets. Do you think Jewish Genocide was concluded to have happened a hundred years after it happened. No, it was a there and then issue.
Whereas, with what you’re saying, there has been more or less a century whereby none of that was established. BTW, we’re talking about a time when Turkey was much much weaker –so, if the claim was correct it would have been immensely easier to force Turkey to accept the charge.
In short, this story is a nice one to keep on the table to threaten with but has no substance. The west should drop this –it’s very much similar to Iraqi WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) allegations. It doesn’t exist –and in the part that did exist, you’ll find that your own grandparents colluded with it (again, much like WMD stuff).
[quote]Turkey has a problem with its pride, real good and honest people admit their faults. THis makes them big. Everyone else is not a man but just a little mouse[/quote]
This has nothing to do with pride –other than the pride that prevents you from accepting misallegations.
We have our own share of stupidity, incompetence etc., there’s no doubt about it. But, a genocide is not amongst them.
Echnaton,
I am sorry. this forum does not let me blockquote you. So, I tried my best to distinguish what you wrote –which meant I had to remove portions carried over from previous conversation.
[quote]
Dear Muzmin and Echleton,
Until I read some of your arguments, I did not subscribe the view that “when there is a greater than 20 gap in IQ’s the communication is impossible”.
Dear Mr. Akyol,
I do not want to carry on the exchange we had on the wisdom of the “manifesto” here, bur after having read most of the comments, I can’t help but ask: Do you still insist that it was a good idea?
Sincerely,
Bekir L. Yildirim
I read your manifesto with interest. However, why do you and Ms. Baran insist on labelling yourself as Muslims – wouldn’t it be better for you to say that from an ideological perspective you are secular, though you were born in Muslim families. This would be more accurate, rather than trying to generate a version of Islam that you feel concords with your secular beliefs.
Little of what you say is supported by most Muslim thinkers.
If this was such a wide initiative, how come it is only supported by you, and the apologist for the Uzbek regime, Baran?
Dear Mr. Sinclair,
You are totally wrong about my religious identity. I am in no way a secular person. I am a serious believer of Islam. My Islamic views might not be the same with some other Muslim thinkers; this just means that we have different interpretations of Islam.
Mustafa Akyol
I recently attended a symposium organised by the Islamic group Hizb al-Tahrir. They presented an interesting vision of the Caliphate and how it will protect women and religious minorities. They also condemn violence against non-combatants and terrorist atrocities, and reject the tyranny of certain rulers. They say that the Caliph will be elected and accountable. They talk of an independent judiciary and the existence of political parties to call the regime to account. I was interested to know your views on this and whether it is consistent with the Muslim Manifesto?
Also, why do you use the term “moderates” – this term has no legal definition or commonly understood meaning? One person’s extremist is another person’s moderate.
Arthur,
Care to give links for proceedings of that symposium?
[quote]I recently attended a symposium organised by the Islamic group Hizb al-Tahrir.[/quote]
Intetresting connections
[quote]They presented an interesting vision of the Caliphate and how it will protect women and religious minorities. They also condemn violence against non-combatants and terrorist atrocities, and reject the tyranny of certain rulers. They say that the Caliph will be elected and accountable. They talk of an independent judiciary and the existence of political parties to call the regime to account.[/quote]
Good luck to all who think they can get up and (re-)establish an authority of that sort.. but, if historical continuity is anything to go by, one could hardly point to Hizb al-Tahrir to reintroduce such a post.
[quote]I was interested to know your views on this and whether it is consistent with the Muslim Manifesto?[/quote]
Last time I checked, there was no election won by a couple of bright young individuals to draft such a text.
There is no ‘the Muslim Manifesto’. Period.
[quote]Also, why do you use the term “moderates” – this term has no legal definition or commonly understood meaning?[/quote]
I guess it is probably becuse it sounds nicer –just like ‘civilized people’ does.
[quote]One person’s extremist is another person’s moderate.[/quote]
Precisely.
Dear Mr. Akyol,
I have been checking the list of signers (at http://muslimmanifesto.org/list.html) from time to time, but remain disapointed that, after more than three weeks, apparently nobody has supported your good sentiments.
Has anybody signed the Manifesto? Do you still intend to populate the signatories page?
Islam and technology – Is Islam anti-technology?
Living in a material world
One confusion which arises amongst some people is that how, on the one hand democracy, capitalism and the policies of the west are kufr and yet we still use their technologies such as the internet, mobile phones and cars. Is this not haram? Additionally, some condemn the Khilafah as being regressive or anti-technological. Former US assistant secretary of state, James Rubin said in an interview
Dear Mustafa Akyol,
I agree with Steve that there are so little support to the manifesto. I think this is because nobody aware of it. Is it right? What’s your plan? I’m here to support you anyway.
With my best regards,