Islam without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty (3 page)

National Action League
. A Syria-based pan-Arab movement active between 1932 and 1940.

Nizam-ı Cedid
. “New Order”; a series of Ottoman reforms under Sultan Selim III in the late eighteenth century.

Nizamiye courts
. Secular “regulation” courts initiated by the Ottoman Empire in 1869.

Nur movement
. Popular civil Islamic movement in twentieth-century Turkey inspired by the writings of Said Nursi. Its members are known as Nurcus.

Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)
. An international organization founded in 1969 to safeguard the rights of Muslims worldwide. Fifty-seven Muslim-majority states are members.

Orientalist
. A Western scholar who studies the societies and cultures of the Orient—i.e., the “near” and “far” East.

Ottomanism
. The nineteenth-century Ottoman policy of establishing equality by creating an “Ottoman” identity, regardless of religion or ethnicity.

pan-Islam
. The idea that all of the world’s Muslims should be unified in a political structure.

pas¸a
. A military commander or distinguished statesman in the Ottoman Empire.

patriarch
. The spiritual and political leader in Eastern Christian denominations.

patrimonialism
. A form of governance in which all power flows directly from an autocratic leader.

People of Reason
(
ahl al-ray
)
. The early Islamic juristic and theological school that relied on reason as the second source after the Qur’an and suspected the authenticity of the Hadiths. They opposed the People of Tradition.

People of the Book
(
ahl al-Kitab
)
. Qur’anic term for non-Muslim religious groups with a revealed scripture; typically refers to Christians and Jews.

People of Tradition
(
ahl al-hadith
)
. The early Islamic juristic school that upheld the Hadiths of the Prophet as an alternative to reason. They opposed the People of Reason.

Pharisees
. Conservative Jews during the time of Jesus who preached a strict adherence to Jewish law and rejection of Hellenism.

Progressive Republican Party
(PRP
or
Terakkiperver Cumhuriyet Fırkası
)
. A liberal political party founded in Republican Turkey in 1924 and closed down by the regime six months later.

Qadarites (
or
Qadaris)
. One of Islam’s earliest schools of theology, whose members defended free will and opposed the political tyranny of the ruling Umayyad dynasty. They were the precursors of the Mutazilites.

Qadimism
. From the word
qadim
(old), a movement that promoted Islamic traditionalism in late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Russia, especially in contrast to the reformist Jadidism.

qiyas
. “Analogical reasoning,” a tool used in Islamic jurisprudence.

Qur’an
. Literally, “recitation”; Muslim scripture revealed to the Prophet Muhammad in segments over a period of twenty-three years.

Rabbanite
. The medieval Jewish tradition that respected the authority of oral law (Talmud), as opposed to the Karaites, who only valued the scripture (Torah).

Ramadan
. The holy month of the Islamic lunar calendar during which Muslims fast between sunrise and sunset.

Republican People’s Party (RPP
or
CHP,
Cumhuriyet Halk Fırkası
)
. The political party, founded in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, that established a “single-party regime” by eliminating all political opposition.

riba
. “Excess, increase,” a financial action denounced in the Qur’an. There is consensus that this refers to usury; whether it also refers to the charging of interest continues to be debated.

Rightly Guided Caliphs
. A term used by Sunni Muslims for the first four successors of the Prophet. Shiites only revere the fourth caliph, Ali.

Sadducees
. A party of elitist Jews during the time of Jesus who were willing to cooperate with Rome and incorporate Hellenism into their lives.

sahih
. Literally, “sound”; Hadiths that are considered to be authentic reports from the Prophet Muhammad.

Salafi
. A Muslim individual or movement desirous of returning to the ways of the
salaf
, the pious forebears or the earliest generations of Islam. While some nineteenth-century Salafis were modernists, the movement increasingly turned fundamentalist.

Saracens
. European term used during the time of the Crusades to refer to Arabs and even all Muslims.

Saudi
. “Of Saud,” a dynasty that has founded and ruled successive states in central Arabia since the mid-eighteenth century.

s¸eyh-ül I˙slam
. The highest cleric in the Ottoman state, responsible for guiding the executive according to the Shariah.

Shafi
. A major Sunni Islamic law school, often more conservative than Hanafi.

Shariah
. Islamic law developed by scholars; based on the Qur’an and the Hadiths.

sharif
. “Noble, exalted”; honorary title given to descendants of the Prophet Muhammad.

Shiites
. “Followers” of Ali, regarding him as the true successor of the Prophet Muhammad and believing in the divinely inspired wisdom of his bloodline. About 15 percent of all Muslims are Shiites.

shura
. The Qur’anic principle of “mutual consultation.”

Sicarii
. “Daggermen”; an extremist splinter group of the Jewish Zealots, who assassinated Roman officials and their collaborators using concealed daggers called
sicae.

Sola Scriptura
. “By scripture alone”; the Protestant doctrine that the scripture contains all knowledge necessary for salvation.

Sufism
. The inner mystical dimension of Islam, aiming at raising the God-consciousness of individual Muslims.

Sunna
. The Prophet Muhammad’s example for Muslims as recorded in the Hadiths.

Sunni
. The main branch of Islam, which puts great emphasis on the Sunna (tradition) of the Prophet as a source of belief, along with the Qur’an. About 85 percent of all Muslims are Sunnis.

Taliban
. Literally, “students”; a radical Sunni Islamist political movement that governed Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.

Tanzimat Edict
(
Gülhane Hatt-ı s¸erifi
)
. The Ottoman “Reorganization” declaration of 1839, which initiated an era of extensive modernization.

tarikat
. Literally, “way, path”; an Islamic religious order within the Sufi tradition.

ta’wil
. Allegorical interpretation of the Qur’an and other religious texts, as opposed to literalism.

TÜSI˙AD
. The Turkish Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association, the top business association in Turkey, founded in 1971; similar to the Business Roundtable in the United States.

Ulama
. “Scholars”; traditionally used to refer to Islamic jurists and theologians (
ulema
in Turkish).

Umayyad
. The first hereditary Islamic caliphate; a dynasty that ruled from Damascus from 661 to 750, when overthrown by the Abbasids.

umma
. The worldwide Muslim community of believers.

urf
. Local customs in any given society, which both the Qur’an and Islamic jurisprudence recognize.

vizier
. A high-ranking official in the Ottoman Empire (
vezir
in Turkish); equivalent to a minister.

voluntarism
. In theology, the idea that God should be defined as an absolute power whose actions cannot and should not be explained through reason; the opposite of intellectualism.

Wahhabi
. Adherent of a strict and literalist interpretation of Islam based on the teachings of Muhammad Abd-al-Wahhab; a revived form of the Hanbali school.

waqf
. Muslim religious foundation (
vakıf
in Turkish) whose profits are used for charitable purposes.

Young Ottomans
. A group of Ottoman intellectuals who emerged in the 1860s and advocated a liberal agenda compatible with Islamic norms.

Young Turks
. An intellectual and political movement that emerged toward the end of the nineteenth century and gradually dominated the Ottoman Empire. They were secularist and nationalist (especially when compared to the Young Ottomans).

zakat
. “Purification”; almsgiving of some portion of a Muslim’s wealth. One of the five pillars of Islam.

Zealots
. A political movement in first-century Judaism that sought to incite the Jews to rebel against the Roman Empire.

Introduction

Nothing is what it seems.

—Al Pacino, in
The Recruit
(2003)

I
GREW UP IN
A
NKARA
, Turkey’s capital, as (then) the only child of a middle-class family. My father was a newspaper columnist—a career I would also pursue—and my mother was a primary-school teacher. They were both Muslim believers but too busy with daily life to find time to teach me about religion. Therefore, when my grandfather, a very devout Muslim, suggested that he could help me become better acquainted with God, my parents happily supported the idea. At the time, I was about eight, not doing much during the summer holiday besides playing with other kids on the street; my grandfather lived, with my equally pious and bighearted grandmother, just a few blocks from our apartment. So we all agreed that I would visit my grandparents in the mornings and, after enjoying their delicious breakfasts, receive a crash course in Islam.

In the next couple of weeks, my grandfather spent a few hours every day showing me how to perform the regular Muslim prayers, took me to the neighborhood mosque, and taught me to form Arabic letters and words with colorful beads. My first big achievement was to write the pillar of the Muslim faith:
La Ilahe Illallah
, or, “There is no god but God.” My grandfather also told me stories about prophets such as Yusuf (Joseph) or Musa (Moses), while I listened with juvenile curiosity and novice religiosity. I truly enjoyed learning about God and the religion He had revealed.

One day, in my grandfather’s library, I came across a prayer book with three quotes on its back cover. The first two quotes were from the Qur’an, and they were about how and why God created humanity. One was the verse: “He it is Who made for you the ears and the eyes and the hearts; little is it that you give thanks.”
¹
I was deeply touched by this message. For the first time, I realized that my sight, hearing, and feelings are “given” to me by God. Surely, I said to myself, I should thank Him more.

But the third quote on the book’s cover, which was from another source called Hadiths (sayings), was not moving but disturbing. “If your children do not start praying at the age of ten,” it said, “then beat them up.”

I was horrified. I knew that my grandfather—a kind, compassionate man—would never even talk rudely to me, let alone beat me. But here I was, eight years old, discovering that my religion—the religion I was so enjoying learning about—instructed parents and grandparents to hurt their children. I was shaken up.