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The Forgotten Liberalism Within Islam
Saturday, July 16th, 2011[Originally published in Huffington Post]
Today, in most minds, the words “liberalism” and “Islam” can come together only to form an oxymoron. However, this was not the case a century ago. The Islamic world was still much less open and democratic then the West, but most intellectuals and statesmen of that world were self-declared liberals.
Islam Will Find Its Own Way to Freedom
Sunday, July 3rd, 2011[Originally published in Public Discourse]
Predicting history is always a tough, if not risky, business. Hence to a big question such as “How do you think the Middle East will be a decade from now?”, my answer would normally be, “Well, we will see.” And yet I am tempted to agree with Michael Novak’s “not-so-bold prediction” that we will see a much freer and more democratic Muslim Middle East by the year 2020. Let me explain why.
Why I Am Turning My Face East
Tuesday, May 31st, 2011[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News, with readers’ comments]
It has been argued lately that Turkey is “turning its face to the East.” The country’s traditional “Western orientation,” real or perceived, has claimed to be replaced by a different direction, including the all-scary Middle East. Some blame the incumbent Justice and Development Party, or AKP, and its “covert Islamism” for this shift, whereas others point to tectonic changes in the world’s political economy, to which Turkey is only adopting.
Why Bin Laden Had His Fans?
Wednesday, May 4th, 2011[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News, with readers’ comments]
The death of bin Laden was comforting news for the billions around the world who saw him as the mastermind of terror. Especially the Americans, some of whom lost their loved ones to the indiscriminate killing of al-Qaeda, were understandably cheerful. But not everybody shared the same feelings and thoughts. News from Pakistan and Afghanistan in fact indicate quite a few people in those countries mourn for the man, which they regarded as a hero who bravely stood up against “the imperialists.”
Zero Problems with Dictators?
Thursday, April 28th, 2011[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News, with readers’ comments]
I have been a supporter of the “zero problems with neighbors” strategy of Turkey’s visionary Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu. I still am. This new approach saved Turkey from its decades-old paranoia toward the outside world, which was considered as a collection of enemies. It replaced the militarism of the past century with a soft power idea, based on diplomacy, trade and people-to-people dialogue. It replaced barbed wires and landmines with open borders and visa-free travel. It helped both our neighbors and us.
Yet there was one little catch in this “zero problems” strategy: some of our neighbors, and other countries in the region that we wanted to get closer to, are dictatorships. So, we ran into the risk of making friends with regimes that crack down on their own people.
Troubles Within Muslim Cultures
Friday, February 18th, 2011[Original published in Hurriyet Daily News, with readers' comments]
MECCA – The Kaabah, the holiest shrine of Islam, is a breathtaking place – even through secular eyes. Millions of Muslims flock here every year to venerate this ancient building, which they believe to be the world’s first monotheist temple built by Abraham and his son Ishmael.
The Kaabah is most crowded during the Hajj, with millions of pilgrims, but it is filled with thousands of worshippers at any given moment.
The Gods That Are Failing
Friday, January 21st, 2011[Originally published in Hürriyet Daily News]
“What collapsed in Tunisia is the Kemalist model.” So read the headline of Yeni Asya, a Muslim Turkish daily, last Tuesday. And it summed up the doomed fate of the modern Muslim Middle East, and its erratically unfolding future.
What just happened in Tunisia, the smallest of all North African states, is a popular uprising dubbed the “Jasmine Revolution.” The fallen dictator, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who fled the county last week with one-and-a-half tons of gold, had been in power since 1987. Yet the country was no freer before: Ben Ali was just a sequel to Habib Bourguiba, another dictator, who had ruled the country single-handedly since its independence from French colonial rule in 1957. Click to continue »
Imagine There Is No Religion
Friday, December 17th, 2010[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
Among the hundreds of comments these pages receive everyday, categorically anti-religious comments are quite abundant. Religion, for those commentators, is the source almost all evil in the world.
Faith in God, they say, led to religious wars and inquisitions in the Middle Ages and it leads to terrorism, male-domination or communal bigotry today. Accordingly, unless humanity trashes out all religions – first Islam, but ultimately all of them – we will not be able find peace of mind.
A Murder and A World Without Islam
Wednesday, December 15th, 2010[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
Something terrible happened in Istanbul last Saturday. A newly married couple was shot dead in a car, only 10 days after their wedding. The police arrested the bride’s older brother as the suspect. The man confessed the crime and said that he had to kill his sister and her husband for her treason to the community – for this was a Christian-Muslim marriage the bride’s family strongly opposed.
The Patriarchate Is Ecumenical. Period.
Friday, November 19th, 2010[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
BRUSSELS – What brought me to the European capital this time is an international conference organized by the Archons.
Never heard of the Archons before? I, at least, had not heard about them until a few months ago, when they invited me to speak at the “Religious Freedom: Turkey’s Bridge to the European Union” conference, which was held this week right at the European Parliament.
Beware of ‘Educated’ Turks
Friday, September 3rd, 2010[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
This week, Turkey’s Education Personnel Labor Union, or Eğitim Bir-Sen, revealed a survey that mapped out the political attitudes in Turkish society. Bookishly titled, “Otherness in Turkey as a Common Identity,” the research focused on how people identified themselves in this society and how they looked at other identities.
An Unlikely Trio: Iran, Turkey & the U.S.
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010[Published in the Foreign Affairs magazine]
In his new book, Reset, Stephen Kinzer argues that the United States should partner with Iran and Turkey to promote democracy and combat extremism in the Middle East. Although it is hard to imagine Iran as a friend of Washington, Turkey is ready to play that role.
Adultery, Stoning and Myths About Islam
Friday, July 9th, 2010[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
My column neighbor Burak Bekdil had an interesting piece yesterday titled, “Would Mr. Erdoğan kindly care for this Muslim woman?” While Mr. Erdoğan probably needs no introduction, “this woman” was Sakineh Mohammedie Ashtiani, an Iranian citizen who reportedly faced a threat of being executed by stoning. Mr. Bekdil was wondering — rhetorically, I guess — if the Turkish prime minister could use his prestige in Tehran to save the poor lady from such an unfortunate end. Besides that, he was also making tongue-in-cheek references to the Quran to imply how upholding that book can lead Muslims to “barbaric” acts such as stoning.
A Lesson For Israelis From The Crusaders
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
I once read a comment by an Israeli author that most people in his country do not want to recall the historic significance of the Horns of Hattin. That place, which is in modern-day Israel, takes its interesting name from the twin peaks that overlook the lower Galilee. But its real fame comes from the 1187 Battle of Hattin, in which the Islamic army led by the legendary Saladin crushed the Crusaders, opening the way to the Muslim re-conquest of Jerusalem.
For The Fear of God: A Requiem For Armenians
Saturday, April 24th, 2010[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
Ninety-five years ago, on this very day, a dark episode began in the crumbling Ottoman Empire. Around 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders were arrested in Istanbul and deported to Anatolia, never to return.
The real catastrophe began a month later. The Union and Progress government, the Young Turk Party that overtook the empire with a military coup in 1913, passed an Expulsion Law, giving itself the authority to deport anyone that is deemed as a threat to national security.
Islam, Women and Sex: Debunking A Few Myths
Tuesday, April 6th, 2010[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
There are times that I strongly disagree with my colleague Barçın Yinanç, the associate editor of our paper, whose view of Turkey’s self-styled secularism is generally more positive than mine. But I felt quite in tune with her last weekend, when I read some of the fuming comments she received for simply saying something positive about Islam in her latest story. “Welcome to the club,” I then said to her in an email. “This is called Islamophobia.”
Turkey Finally Outgrows Atatürk
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010[Originally published in Newsweek]
Last month, some-thing unprecedented happened in Turkey: more than 50 high-ranking military officers, including several retired four-star generals, were detained and questioned by prosecutors over an alleged coup plot. Codenamed Sledgehammer, the conspiracy supposedly aimed to overthrow the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which many Turkish secularists find too Islamic.
The Shariah of Love
Saturday, January 30th, 2010[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
One of the popular themes in our popular culture is that peculiar feeing called love, and the way it sometimes torments people. Love stories with unhappy endings are quite common, and the heartbreaks they cause are quite bitter. No wonder so much music has been devoted to this trouble. “Love hurts,” a famous song warns, “love scars.”
Toward A Liberal ‘Political Islam’?
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
Political Islam, as you probably have noticed before, is a dirty term. It often refers to angry men who impose veils on women and ban anything that is fun. It even reminds us of the horrific reign of the Taliban, whose heaven on Earth in Afghanistan looked rather like hell for most of us.
There is a good reason for this notoriety of political Islam. Its main proponents, such as the Pakistani thinker Abul A’ala Mawdudi (1903-1979), defined it as the effort to create an “Islamic state,” whose main mission would be the imposition of shariah, or Islamic law, within its most rigid and medieval interpretation.
