Gathering in İstanbul at a meeting organized by Turkish Review and Hira magazine, Arab and Turkish intellectuals have discussed the role of the state in Muslim societies and agreed that Islamist politicians have lost their test with power, as they were transformed by the state instead of transforming the state.
Ahmed Karani, Undersecretary to Education Minister at the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), was among the visitors of the fair. Karani found the students’ projects successful and scintillating. He also commended the students for their high academic level and accentuated the significance of fairs in this nature
Underlining that Pakistan’s major problems result from a lack of adequate education, the former prime minister noted that the developed education system at Pakistan’s 23 Turkish schools could play a significant role in solving those problems in the country.
The eruption of protests across the country in the summer of 2013 were a result of the AKP’s increasingly authoritarian governing style. Rather than reading these protests as a public expression of discomfort — and taking the recent corruption charges seriously before declaring them a conspiracy against the government by the rival Gulen movement — the government is currently pushing legislation within parliament that will not only abolish the separation between the judiciary and the executive but which will completely consolidate the judicial and executive powers at the hands of the government.
Well, under normal circumstances Erdoğan would get neither himself nor his government involved in what looks like plain bribery. But the situation would be completely different if the underlying assumption of the government is that Erdoğan is the de facto caliph.
Prominent scholar Tariq Ramadan, grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, has criticized the Turkish prime minister for seeking more power and urged him to rethink staying in power for a longer time. Ramadan said, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan once told former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak — that one day he will have to know how to leave — is true for him as well. “[Erdoğan] also needs to get this right.”
For understandable reasons, governments don’t like to be criticized. But all governments tend to make mistakes. Even if governments and administrations do not like to be criticized, criticizing their mistakes is both a right and a responsibility. It is a moral duty. The criteria for this criticism include fairness, constructiveness and the avoidance of libel and defamation. Damaging the prestige of people, groups, organizations or firms is not criticism.
Upcoming 30th meeting of the Abant Platform will search for a peaceful common future for Alevis and Sunnis who have been living peacefully together in Anatolia despite external provocations and some unwanted interruptions. The coexistence in the past promises hope for future. The meeting is themed as “Alevis and Sunnis: Searching for Peace and a Future Together,” which will be attended by intellectuals who will also be part of the solution.
Turkey’s Islamic camp is more diverse than one would think. In fact, the traditions that Erdoğan and Gülen come from have almost always been distinct and different from each. The former has been more explicitly Islamist, at times anti-Western and anti-Semitic. The latter, the line of Gülen, which goes back to scholar Said Nursi (1878-1960), has rather stayed closer to center-right parties and have been more friendly to the West and also other “Abrahamic” faiths.
Latest stopover in promotion event series of Islam without Extremes by journalist-author Mustafa Akyol was Salt Lake City. The event by Pacifica Institute Utah Branch at Marriott City Center saw the attendance of highly prominent guests including President Pro Tempore at Idaho State Senate, Brent Hill; Utah Senators, Gene Devis, Jim Dabakis; Representatives Lynn Hemingway […]
Question: Armenians are dhimmis. How can dhimmis be equal to Muslims? Answer: Let us not see ourselves in a magnifying mirror. We are to be blamed on this issue. We could not protect them as well as we should have; we failed to demonstrate the justice of Sharia. Because of the wrong practices of autocratic regime, we failed to protect their rights within the Sharia framework…