Rick Warren Quotes

The prohibition of anything new has been one of the reasons for the decadence of Islam over the years. When originated, it was the most modern religion in the world. However as other religions grew and reformed, Islam has not and resists all new things. Christianity which was in the Dark Ages when Islam began, did change including the Protest Reformation so by the end of the 17th century the Christian world was more advanced scientifically, politically, and economically.

At the time, Muslim clerics had a great deal of influence and in many cases legal control over all facets of Turkish society much as exists in other Islamic societies today. They even controlled what was taught in the schools. Remarkably, without bloodshed, Ataturk broke both the power and the influence of the clerics on all official and public activities. Many Turkish Muslims even developed a type of reformed Islam with the relationship between the individual and the clerics one of parity much like Protestant churches in the West. At the same time there was a more orthodox part of the population and while they sent their children to religious schools, they also attended public schools so even the orthodox Muslims in Turkey learned science and modern subjects which are still not taught in most Islamic schools and madrassas.

Ironically, while Radical Fundamentalist Muslims abroad claim that Western materialism and dem0cracy is not only anti-Islamic but a danger to Islam, in America there has been a growing and thriving Islamic community which has had far less difficulty reconciling their religion and American democracy and values than have other religions such as the Amish and orthodox Jews. This ease of the transition and Islamic compatibility with modern America is perhaps the central reason for the hatred of America. Aslan argues that the Muslim reformation is succeeding very smoothly in America and is the model for Muslims throughout the world.

In 1877 Wasburn was dropped from the List of Ministers by the Unitarian Church. He had become very critical of organized and orthodox religion of all kinds.

Huqqani was specifically referring to Muslim religious scholars, but his point is more general and applies equally to some religious scholars and clerics of Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and other persuasions.

He was one of the few Christians who were then aware of and commented upon the new Reform Judaism—a new Americanized form of Judaism that was then developing. America and its separation of church and state had become a fertile environment for the creation and development of new religions (Mormons, Christian Scientists) and new offshoots of existing religions (Pentecostals, Reform Jews). The Reform Judaism, which many orthodox Jews do not even consider it a legitimate form of Judaism, became, in less than a century the most popular form of Judaism for American Jews.

Ataturk wanted to change the Turkish alphabet from Arabic to Latin characters. Experts estimated that it would take at least 15 years. Ataturk allowed no parallel usage, made it illegal for any documents or signs to be written in Arabic, and it was done in 3 months. The benefit was that Arabic took much longer to learn. Relatively few people could read or write. Arabic had been imposed on the Turkish language. Printing with movable type was much more difficult in Arabic and Atatuk wanted many more books published and read. Soon Turkey had the highest literacy rate in the Islamic world, and rivaled that of most Western nations. Making the sudden change not only had the advantage of fixating the entire society on the change, but did not allow opponents of the change (of which there were many) —especially the Islamic clergy many of whom felt that the Koran was the only book that people should be allowed to read.

Islam is a religion, like many Christian sects, where conversion of non-believers is a religious duty. When many of the European day-to-day customs, conflict with Islamic custom or prescription, decadence and the desire to change it becomes a very predictable result.

All modern legal systems conflict in some respects with a literal interpretation of the Koran which is the basis for the traditionalists view of Sharia—Islamic law. Therefore a student of modern law is learning things which go against Sharia as interpreted by fundamentalists. There was a time when Jewish and Christian American religious families were uncomfortable with studding modern law as there were contradictions with Biblical law. There are still a few.