“Turkey in radical revision of Islamic texts”
Under the above heading there is a news item on the BBC’s news website at this link.
Here are some brief extracts giving its flavour:
“Its supporters say the spirit of logic and reason inherent in Islam at its foundation 1,400 years ago are being rediscovered. Some believe it could represent the beginning of a reformation in the religion.”
“… the task of explaining the original spirit of Islam to remote communities in Turkey’s vast interior…”
And how about this:
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.
This obviously refers to the theory of abrogation.
The work of “recreating” Islam (as it is called in this article) has already been done long ago in the writings of Maulana Muhammad Ali.
From Abdul Momin:
There is also this interesting news in The Dawn dated 2-26-2008. The news header for this news item reads:
20,000 scholars term terrorism un-Islamic: Declaration issued at Darul-Uloom Deoband
Let us pray and hope that things start moving in the right direction. Let us also hope that the Deobandi followers in Pakistan are able get this message.
But to understand the unique intellectual message of Islam, critical thinking is required and for that, secular education has to be prevalent in Muslim societies. The need is for Islam to be "wrestled away" from ignorant and corrupt political and religious leaders, who have nothing to offer except fear and mind control of the Muslim masses.