Tin-opener theology from TurkeyBy Spengler
Some excerpts.
For months we have read news reports of an Islamic reform stemming from the University of Ankara's theology department. A widely-cited February 28 report by Robert Pigott, the BBC's religion correspondent, claimed that Ankara would "fashion a new Islam" along "revolutionary" lines. In less flamboyant tone, the story resurfaced in the June 8 issue of Newsweek under the headline, "The New Face of Islam". This is the triumph of hope over fact-checking. "Tin-opener theology" is how the leading Western expert on the subject dismisses the efforts at Ankara University to date. Father Felix Koerner, a German Jesuit, has taught at the university and published the definitive source-book on the supposed reform. He explains that the Ankara theologians want to open up the Koran .............The notion of a "Jesuit plot" against Islam is a paranoid hallucination, for there is no consensus among the Jesuits regarding Islam, much less a plot. A handful of patient Jesuit scholars are immersed in Muslim theology, seeking a dialogue with prospective Islamic reformers..................Father Koerner shows that what the Ankara theology department has in mind is not a reformation in any sense of the word. It is not even theology in the sense most people understand the word. Following the late Pakistani theologian (interesting website) Fazlur Rahman (1919-1988), the Ankara group argues that some of the revelation in the Koran was directed to specific people at a specific point in time, and is subject to revision. This includes such matters as polygamy, the wearing of veils, and other matters in which the Koran appears egregiously out of touch with the times.
Link to Spenglers full article at Asia Times (here)
Photo credit: Picture of protestors during Pope Benedict's visit to Turkey in 2006. Visit the blog post (here)
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