Ali Babacan Quotes
A country which has a population 99% as their faith in Islam can also be a country which are subscribing to the universal values of the E.U.
Babacan, Ali. Interview by Stephen Sackur. HARDtalk, BBC News, 16 Apr. 2008.
Half the population of Amsterdam was at the time non Western in origin including many Muslims. Cohen was one of the few major Dutch leaders who worked to make multiculturalism work. However, there were so many religious Muslim extremists already active in the Netherlands, that it was very difficult. The Dutch had elected a Muslim as a member of Parliament and whole many Muslims were very proud of this, the religious extremists were furious. She was a woman, and she did not believe or advocate that Holland adopt Sharia (Islamic) law. She was an Islamic reformer who was opposed to Sharia even in Muslim states. The most successful Islamic nation, Turkey, does not allow Sharia law, and Indonesia, the largest of the Muslim nations also does not follow it.
This was a remarkable public statement for its time. No other political leader of an Islamic country would dare claim that people have a right to be atheists. Very few would even suggest that people should be free to choose their own religion.
Many, if not most, non-Muslim scholars and thinkers very much disagree with Hamid on this point. The great exceptions of Islam are almost 1,000 years in the past. Current Islam, they argue, is not more exceptional than the beliefs of modern Mongolia which dominated most of the known world centuries ago, but has little that deserves special respect in the 21st country beyond the general respect which is owed to all religions and nationalities. With the exception of Turkey, Islamic nations are for the most part, backward, and virtually no other non-Muslim nations try to emulate them in any way.
This quotation illustrates that a narrow orthodox view of Islam is not the only one in Arab nations. Khaled is not an obscure cleric, but a popular television personality. While his views are considered heresy by many orthodox Muslims, the narrow view is by no means universal. Orthodox Islamists believe that God has commanded that all mankind be Muslims and the ones who are not are either ignorant so need to be “educated”, or evil and therefore should be killed. However, Muhammad ordained that an exception should be made for “Children of the Book”—Jews and Christians who revere the Old Testament. This was at a time when Christians would not allow any other form of worship but Christianity. Christianity, Judaism and most other religions have become tolerant of other religions and allow open alternative worship. Islam which early on led the way to tolerance, has in many countries gone back to the intolerance that existed amongst many Christians at the time of Muhammad.
This problem which was so well described over a century ago in Egypt, still vexes most of the Islamic world.
an old term for Muslims The Muslims were present in every state if India. Jinnah’s concept of nationhood is very Islamic in that Muslims are united even if they be in different states of nations. He was arguing to reserve some states as Muslim states by designation. 7 years later he would insist on a separate homeland. India was partitioned and Pakistan and Bangladesh resulted but at a fearful cost of tens of millions of lives.
Head of the Sikh Religion. His teaching was that deeds determined the man, not the professed belief and that the existing religions turned man against man.
Ali Babacan is a Turkish politician. He was member of the parliament and former Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey responsible for the Economy. He first served as the Minister of State in charge of economic affairs in the 58th cabinet from the Justice and Development Party (AK Party). He retained this position throughout the 58th and 59th Governments of the Republic of Turkey. On 29 August 2007 he was appointed as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the 60th Government of the Republic of Turkey. During 2009–2015 he served as the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic and Financial Affairs of Turkey. He is married with three children. In 2019, Babacan left the AKP, citing "deep differences" over the party's direction as a reason and founded the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA) in 2020.
