Islamic Modernization Quotes

The Islamic Reformation is already here. We are all living in it.

The Islamic world is fed up with violence and extremism in the name of religion and is ready for an era of progressive, democratic Muslim governments …. After about two centuries of dispute between tradition and modernity in the world of Islam there must be a high level of mental preparation for the acceptance of a major transformation in the mind and lives of Muslims.

If they analyze the situation as thoroughly as they should, Muslims will realize they are the first targets. What are the fundamentalists really after? Simply taking over Islam and then turning its back on modernity.

...it is time [for Islam] to assume, along with all of the great cultural traditions, the modern risks of scientific knowledge.

In Turkey religion not only affects society but is affected by it, which is why Turkish Islam differs from Arab Islam. It's a more modern, more rational, more self-confident society.

Islam can only be modernized from within. If I state that I condemn the practice of stoning, that this punishment is despicable, it changes nothing. My fellow Muslims will say: Brother Tariq, you became a European, a Swiss citizen, so you are no longer one of us.

In the long term, the United States could greatly benefit Islam by uniquely freeing the religion from government constraints and permitting it to evolve in a positive, modern direction. But that's the long term.

I think Islam is in a sense, in crisis. It needs to question and re-question itself.

Turkey is viewed as a very modern country and a great place to go and visit and yet Islamic as well. Iran is in some ways like that... with the difference that Iran is probably more influential than Turkey in affairs that are of interest to us.

Moderate Islam? That's a contradiction. It's going to be a long time before we see a new Koran, an equivalent to the New Testament. Attacks don't happen in the name of Buddhism or Christianity; nor do homosexuals get beaten up, as happens daily in Amsterdam.

What is taking place in the Muslim world is an internal struggle. We are now living in the twilight of the Islamic reformation. It is inevitable. It may be slowed, but it cannot be stopped.