Abdullah Gul Quotes
I would like to pause for a moment and take stock of what we as the Muslim World are faced with today. We need to attempt to determine the issues and shortcomings that continue to hamper our progress at home. We have a spiritual heritage of peace, harmony, tolerance and affection. It should strengthen our inspiration for achieving freedom, peace, prosperity and democracy.
Abdullah Gul, Turkish Foreign Minister, Speech, 30th Session of the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers, Tehran, May 28, 2003
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This problem which was so well described over a century ago in Egypt, still vexes most of the Islamic world.
Abdul Rahman, Afghan citizen, had converted from Islam to Christianity 16 years before. Conversion from Islam is a capital crime under Sharia Law which was the law of Afghanistan even after the Taliban had been overthrown. He was jailed and threatened with death. Statements like this and others made directly to the government persuaded the Afghan politicians to go against their mullahs who demanded the death penalty as is proscribed by Islamic Law—Sharia. The judges tried to get Rahman to recant and he would not (see {589518}). So they finally decided that he must be mentally insane and therefore could not be tried, and the problem was solved that way.
Islam was not very strong at this point and the followers of Muhammad were relatively few and the Medina area contained Arab Non-Believers, Jews as well as the new Muslims. Muhammad drew up this document and got the non Muslims to agree to it. Not only were Jews able to practice their religion freely (as were the non-Muslim Arabs) but there was not tax on the non Muslims that was imposed later when the Muslims were much stronger relative to others. Also, which surprises many Jews and Muslims alike, the Community – the Ulma – the People included the Jews and Arab Non Believers. Today it is only the Muslims.
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.
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.
Journalists and writers are among the most persecuted people in Islamic nations and even writers in non-Muslim nations have been murdered and intimidated for writing material that fundamentalist Muslims thought was heresy.
This statement differs from the view espoused by many Muslims in regards to Christians. See {590207}.
She was defending the right various media to display cartoons of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad which were very offensive to orthodox and traditional Muslims, many of whom had rioted in countries the world over. Many media outlets thought the cartoons too offensive to be displayed; others were too intimidated to display the cartoons and some displayed them anyway. Ali, born and brought up as a Muslim was one of the relatively few of that religion to defend the right of the publishers,
In September of 2005 a Danish Newspaper published some political cartoons showing the hypocrisy of some Muslims who use Islam to justify murder of innocents and terrorism. Months later, many in the Middle East protested vehemently and Muslim riots broke out and Danish boycotts ensued because the Prophet Muhammad's visage was depicted against Islamic tradition. Many Muslim leaders claimed that insulting religion was an “abuse” of freedom of speech including those from nations which regularly publish material that is virulent against Christians and Jews.
Abdullah Gül is a Turkish politician who served as the 11th President of Turkey, in office from 2007 to 2014. He previously served for four months as Prime Minister from 2002 to 2003, and concurrently served as both Deputy Prime Minister and as Foreign Minister between 2003 and 2007. He is currently a member of the Advisory Panel for the President of the Islamic Development Bank.
