BBC NEWS | Europe | Turkey in radical revision of Islamic texts

Posted on March 7th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Turkey in radical revision of Islamic texts
Turkey in radical revision of Islamic texts

By Robert Pigott
Religious affairs correspondent, BBC News

The scholars say they are returning to the original values of Islam

Turkey is preparing to publish a document that represents a revolutionary reinterpretation of Islam – and a controversial and radical modernisation of the religion.

The country’s powerful Department of Religious Affairs has commissioned a team of theologians at Ankara University to carry out a fundamental revision of the Hadith, the second most sacred text in Islam after the Koran.

The Hadith is a collection of thousands of sayings reputed to come from the Prophet Muhammad.

As such, it is the principal guide for Muslims in interpreting the Koran and the source of the vast majority of Islamic law, or Sharia.

This is kind of akin to the Christian Reformation. Not exactly the same, but… it’s changing the theological foundations of [the] religion
Fadi Hakura,
Turkey expert, Chatham House

Islam series: Modern roles

But the Turkish state has come to see the Hadith as having an often negative influence on a society it is in a hurry to modernise, and believes it responsible for obscuring the original values of Islam.

It says that a significant number of the sayings were never uttered by Muhammad, and even some that were need now to be reinterpreted.

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