Faith versus tradition in Islam | Mustafa Akyol | TEDxWarwick
-
0:16 - 0:17Thank you.
-
0:17 - 0:21A few weeks ago, I had a chance
to go to Saudi Arabia. -
0:21 - 0:24And the first thing
I wanted to do as a Muslim -
0:24 - 0:27was to go to Mecca and visit the Kaaba,
-
0:27 - 0:28the holiest shrine of Islam.
-
0:28 - 0:31And I did that;
I put on my ritualistic dress, -
0:31 - 0:33I went to the holy mosque,
-
0:33 - 0:34I did my prayers,
-
0:34 - 0:36I observed all the rituals.
-
0:37 - 0:40And meanwhile,
besides all the spirituality, -
0:40 - 0:43there was one mundane detail in the Kaaba
-
0:43 - 0:44that was pretty interesting for me:
-
0:45 - 0:47there was no separation of sexes.
-
0:48 - 0:51In other words, men and women
were worshiping all together. -
0:52 - 0:57They were together while doing tawāf,
the circular walk around the Kaaba. -
0:57 - 0:59They were together while praying.
-
1:00 - 1:03And if you wonder
why this is interesting at all, -
1:03 - 1:06you have to see the rest of Saudi Arabia,
-
1:06 - 1:11because this a country which is strictly
divided between the sexes. -
1:11 - 1:12In other words:
-
1:12 - 1:16as men, you are simply not supposed to be
in the same physical space -
1:16 - 1:17with women.
-
1:18 - 1:19And I noticed this in a very funny way.
-
1:19 - 1:23I left the Kaaba to eat something
in downtown Mecca. -
1:24 - 1:26I headed to the nearest
Burger King restaurant. -
1:26 - 1:30And I went there -- I noticed
that there was a male section, -
1:30 - 1:33which is carefully separated
from the female section. -
1:33 - 1:35I had to pay, order and eat
in the male section. -
1:36 - 1:38"It's funny," I said to myself,
-
1:38 - 1:41"You can mingle with the opposite sex
at the holy Kaaba, -
1:41 - 1:42but not at the Burger King?"
-
1:42 - 1:43(Laughter)
-
1:43 - 1:45Quite, quite ironic.
-
1:45 - 1:47Ironic, and it's also,
I think, quite telling, -
1:48 - 1:51because the Kaaba
and the rituals around it -
1:51 - 1:54are relics from the earliest
phase of Islam, -
1:54 - 1:55that of prophet Muhammad.
-
1:56 - 2:00And if there was a big emphasis
at the time to separate men from women, -
2:00 - 2:03the rituals around the Kaaba
could have been designed accordingly. -
2:03 - 2:05But apparently, that was not
an issue at the time. -
2:05 - 2:07So the rituals came that way.
-
2:08 - 2:11This is also, I think,
confirmed by the fact -
2:11 - 2:15that the seclusion of women
in creating a divided society -
2:15 - 2:18is something that you also
do not find in the Koran -- -
2:19 - 2:22the very core of Islam,
the divine core of Islam -- -
2:22 - 2:24that all Muslims, equally myself, believe.
-
2:26 - 2:28And I think it's not an accident
-
2:28 - 2:31that you don't find this idea
in the very origin of Islam, -
2:31 - 2:35because many scholars who study
the history of Islamic thought -- -
2:35 - 2:37Muslim scholars or Westerners --
-
2:37 - 2:41think that, actually, the practice
of dividing men and women physically -
2:42 - 2:45came as a later development in Islam,
-
2:45 - 2:48as Muslims adopted
some preexisting cultures -
2:48 - 2:49and traditions of the Middle East.
-
2:49 - 2:54Seclusion of women was actually
a Byzantine and Persian practice, -
2:54 - 2:58and Muslims adopted it
and made it a part of their religion. -
2:59 - 3:03Actually, this is just one example
of a much larger phenomenon. -
3:04 - 3:07What we call today Islamic law,
and especially Islamic culture -- -
3:07 - 3:10and there are many Islamic
cultures, actually; -
3:10 - 3:12the one in Saudi Arabia is much different
-
3:12 - 3:14from where I come
from in Istanbul or Turkey. -
3:14 - 3:17But still, if you're going to speak
about a Muslim culture, -
3:17 - 3:22this has a core: the divine message
which began the religion. -
3:22 - 3:27But then many traditions, perceptions,
practices were added on top of it. -
3:27 - 3:30And these were traditions
of the Middle East medieval traditions. -
3:31 - 3:34There are two important
messages, or two lessons, -
3:34 - 3:36to take from that reality.
-
3:37 - 3:38First of all, Muslims --
-
3:38 - 3:42pious, conservative, believing Muslims
who want to be loyal to their religion -- -
3:42 - 3:45should not cling onto everything
in their culture, -
3:45 - 3:47thinking that that's divinely mandated.
-
3:47 - 3:50Maybe some things are bad traditions
and they need to be changed. -
3:50 - 3:54On the other hand, the Westerners
who look at Islamic culture -
3:54 - 3:57and see some troubling aspects
-
3:57 - 4:00should not readily conclude
that this is what Islam ordains. -
4:00 - 4:04Maybe it's a Middle Eastern culture
that became confused with Islam. -
4:05 - 4:08Let me give you a few examples
on the latter issue. -
4:09 - 4:11There is a practice
called female circumcision. -
4:12 - 4:14I don't know
if you've ever heard about it, -
4:14 - 4:16but it's something terrible, horrible.
-
4:17 - 4:21It is basically an operation
to deprive women of sexual pleasure. -
4:21 - 4:24I don't want to go into details,
but it's something very bad. -
4:25 - 4:26And Westerners --
-
4:26 - 4:30Europeans or Americans --
who didn't know about this before, -
4:30 - 4:32[saw] this practice
-
4:32 - 4:36within some of the Muslim communities
who migrated from North Africa. -
4:36 - 4:37And they've thought,
-
4:37 - 4:41"Oh, what a horrible religion that is,
which ordains something like that." -
4:42 - 4:44But when you look at female circumcision,
-
4:44 - 4:46you see that it has
nothing to do with Islam; -
4:46 - 4:49it's just a North African practice
which predates Islam. -
4:49 - 4:51It was there for thousands of years.
-
4:51 - 4:55And, quite tellingly,
some Muslims do practice it -- -
4:55 - 4:57the Muslims in North Africa,
not in other places. -
4:57 - 5:01But also the non-Muslim
communities of North Africa -- -
5:01 - 5:05the animists, some Christians
and even a Jewish tribe in North Africa -- -
5:05 - 5:07are known to practice female circumcision.
-
5:08 - 5:12So what might look like a problem
within Islamic faith -
5:12 - 5:16might turn out to be a tradition
that Muslims have subscribed to. -
5:17 - 5:19The same thing can be said
for honor killings, -
5:19 - 5:22which is a recurrent theme
in the Western media -- -
5:22 - 5:25and which is, of course,
a horrible tradition. -
5:25 - 5:29And we see, truly, in some Muslim
communities, that tradition. -
5:29 - 5:32But in the non-Muslim communities
of the Middle East, -
5:32 - 5:34such as some Christian communities,
Eastern communities, -
5:35 - 5:36you see the same practice.
-
5:36 - 5:38We had a tragic case of an honor killing
-
5:38 - 5:42within Turkey's Armenian community
just a few months ago. -
5:43 - 5:45Now, these are things
about general culture, -
5:45 - 5:48but I'm also very much
interested in political culture -
5:49 - 5:52and whether liberty
and democracy is appreciated, -
5:52 - 5:55or whether there's an authoritarian
political culture -
5:55 - 5:58in which the state is supposed
to impose things on the citizens. -
5:59 - 6:00And it is no secret
-
6:00 - 6:03that many Islamic movements
in the Middle East -
6:03 - 6:04tend to be authoritarian,
-
6:04 - 6:07and some of the so-called
"Islamic regimes," -
6:07 - 6:12such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and the worst
case, the Taliban in Afghanistan, -
6:12 - 6:15they are pretty authoritarian --
no doubt about that. -
6:16 - 6:17For example, in Saudi Arabia,
-
6:17 - 6:20there is a phenomenon
called the religious police. -
6:20 - 6:24And the religious police imposes
the supposed Islamic way of life -
6:24 - 6:26on every citizen, by force --
-
6:26 - 6:29like, women are forced
to cover their heads -- -
6:29 - 6:32wear the hijab, the Islamic head cover.
-
6:33 - 6:35Now that is pretty authoritarian,
-
6:35 - 6:37and that's something
I'm very much critical of. -
6:38 - 6:42But when I realized that the non-Muslim,
-
6:42 - 6:45or the non-Islamic-minded
actors in the same geography -
6:45 - 6:47sometimes behaved similarly,
-
6:47 - 6:49I realized that the problem maybe lies
-
6:49 - 6:52in the political culture
of the whole region, not just Islam. -
6:52 - 6:55Let me give you an example:
in Turkey, where I come from, -
6:55 - 6:57which is a very hyper-secular republic,
-
6:58 - 7:03until very recently, we used to have
what I call "secularism police," -
7:03 - 7:07which would guard the universities
against veiled students. -
7:08 - 7:12In other words, they would force students
to uncover their heads. -
7:12 - 7:15And I think forcing people
to uncover their head -
7:15 - 7:18is as tyrannical as forcing
them to cover it. -
7:18 - 7:20It should be the citizen's decision
-
7:20 - 7:22and every individual
should decide about that. -
7:22 - 7:24But when I saw that, I said,
-
7:24 - 7:28"Maybe the problem is just
an authoritarian culture in the region, -
7:28 - 7:31and some Muslims
have been influenced by that. -
7:31 - 7:33But the secular-minded people
can be influenced by that. -
7:33 - 7:35Maybe it's a problem
of the political culture, -
7:35 - 7:39and we have to think about
how to change that political culture." -
7:40 - 7:44Now, these are some of the questions
I had in mind a few years ago -
7:44 - 7:46when I sat down to write a book.
-
7:46 - 7:48I said, "Well, I will do research
-
7:48 - 7:53about how Islam actually
came to be what it is today, -
7:53 - 7:57and what roads were taken
and what roads could have been taken." -
7:58 - 8:00And I finished the book, actually
it's not published - -
8:00 - 8:02it's coming out this summer.
-
8:03 - 8:07The name of the book is "Islam Without
Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty." -
8:07 - 8:09And as the subtitle suggests,
-
8:09 - 8:13I looked at Islamic tradition
and the history of Islamic thought -
8:13 - 8:15from the perspective
of individual liberty, -
8:15 - 8:19and I tried to find what are the strengths
with regard to individual liberty. -
8:19 - 8:21And there are strengths
in Islamic tradition. -
8:21 - 8:23Islam, actually,
as a monotheistic religion, -
8:23 - 8:27which defined man
as a responsible agent by itself, -
8:27 - 8:30created the idea of the individual
in the Middle East, -
8:31 - 8:35and saved it from the communitarianism,
the collectivism of the tribe. -
8:37 - 8:38You can derive many ideas from that.
-
8:40 - 8:44But besides that, I also saw
problems within Islamic tradition. -
8:45 - 8:46But one thing was curious:
-
8:46 - 8:50most of those problems turn out to be
problems that emerged later, -
8:50 - 8:53not from the very divine core
of Islam, the Koran, -
8:53 - 8:56but from, again,
traditions and mentalities, -
8:56 - 9:00or the interpretations of the Koran
that Muslims made in the Middle Ages. -
9:00 - 9:03The Koran, for example,
doesn't condone stoning. -
9:03 - 9:05There is nothing about that in the Koran.
-
9:05 - 9:07There is no punishment for apostasy.
-
9:08 - 9:11There is no punishment
for personal sins like drinking. -
9:11 - 9:15These things which make Islamic law,
-
9:15 - 9:17the troubling aspects of Islamic law,
-
9:17 - 9:21were developed into later
interpretations of Islam. -
9:21 - 9:23Which means that Muslims can, today,
-
9:23 - 9:24look at those things and say,
-
9:24 - 9:29"Well, the core of our religion
is here to stay with us. -
9:29 - 9:31It's our faith,
and we will be loyal to it. -
9:31 - 9:33But we can change how it was interpreted,
-
9:33 - 9:35because it was interpreted
according to the time -
9:35 - 9:37and milieu in the Middle Ages.
-
9:37 - 9:39Now we're living in a different world,
-
9:39 - 9:41with different values
and political systems." -
9:41 - 9:43That interpretation
is quite possible and feasible. -
9:44 - 9:47Now, if I were the only person
thinking that way, -
9:47 - 9:48we would be in trouble.
-
9:50 - 9:51But that's not the case at all.
-
9:52 - 9:56Actually, from the 19th century on,
-
9:56 - 10:02there's a whole revisionist, reformist --
whatever you call it -- tradition, -
10:02 - 10:04a trend in Islamic thinking.
-
10:06 - 10:08These were intellectuals or statesmen
-
10:09 - 10:11of the 19th century,
and later, 20th century, -
10:11 - 10:13which looked at Europe, basically,
-
10:13 - 10:15and saw that Europe
has many things to admire, -
10:15 - 10:17like science and technology.
-
10:17 - 10:20But not just that;
also democracy, parliament, -
10:20 - 10:21the idea of representation,
-
10:21 - 10:23the idea of equal citizenship.
-
10:23 - 10:28These Muslim thinkers, intellectuals
and statesmen of the 19th century, -
10:28 - 10:30looked at Europe,
saw these things, and said, -
10:30 - 10:32"Why don't we have these things?"
-
10:32 - 10:34And they looked back at Islamic tradition,
-
10:34 - 10:36and they saw what I told you -
-
10:36 - 10:39they saw that there are
problematic aspects, -
10:39 - 10:43but they're not the core of the religion,
so maybe they can be re-understood, -
10:43 - 10:45and the Koran can be reread
in the modern world. -
10:46 - 10:51That trend is generally called
Islamic modernism, -
10:51 - 10:54and it was advanced
by intellectuals and statesmen, -
10:54 - 10:56not just as an intellectual idea, though,
-
10:56 - 10:58but also as a political program.
-
10:58 - 11:00And that's why, actually,
in the 19th century, -
11:00 - 11:04the Ottoman Empire, which then
covered the whole Middle East, -
11:04 - 11:06made very important reforms --
-
11:06 - 11:11reforms like giving Christians and Jews
an equal citizenship status, -
11:13 - 11:14accepting a constitution,
-
11:14 - 11:16accepting a representative parliament,
-
11:17 - 11:20advancing the idea of freedom of religion.
-
11:20 - 11:23That's why the Ottoman Empire,
in its last decades, -
11:23 - 11:27turned into a proto-democracy,
a constitutional monarchy, -
11:29 - 11:32and freedom was a very important
political value at the time. -
11:32 - 11:34Similarly, in the Arab world,
-
11:34 - 11:37there was what the great Arab
historian Albert Hourani defines -
11:37 - 11:38as the Liberal Age.
-
11:39 - 11:41He has a book, "Arabic Thought
in the Liberal Age," -
11:41 - 11:45and the Liberal Age, he defines
as 19th century and early 20th century. -
11:46 - 11:51Quite notably, this was the dominant trend
in the early 20th century -
11:51 - 11:54among Islamic thinkers
and statesmen and theologians. -
11:56 - 12:00But there is a very curious pattern
in the rest of the 20th century, -
12:00 - 12:05because we see a sharp decline
in this Islamic modernist line. -
12:05 - 12:07And in place of that,
-
12:07 - 12:13what happens is that Islamism grows
as an ideology which is authoritarian, -
12:13 - 12:16which is quite strident,
-
12:16 - 12:18which is quite anti-Western,
-
12:18 - 12:22and which wants to shape society
based on a utopian vision. -
12:22 - 12:25So Islamism is the problematic idea
-
12:25 - 12:30that really created a lot of problems
in the 20th-century Islamic world. -
12:30 - 12:34And even the very extreme
forms of Islamism -
12:34 - 12:36led to terrorism in the name of Islam --
-
12:37 - 12:40which is actually a practice
that I think is against Islam, -
12:40 - 12:43but some, obviously, extremists,
did not think that way. -
12:44 - 12:46But there is a curious question:
-
12:46 - 12:51If Islamic modernism was so popular
in the 19th and early 20th centuries, -
12:51 - 12:55why did Islamism become so popular
in the rest of the 20th century? -
12:55 - 12:59And this is a question, I think,
which needs to be discussed carefully. -
12:59 - 13:01In my book, I went
into that question as well. -
13:01 - 13:05And actually, you don't need to be
a rocket scientist to understand that. -
13:05 - 13:07Just look at the political
history of the 20th century, -
13:07 - 13:09and you see things have changed a lot.
-
13:09 - 13:11The contexts have changed.
-
13:11 - 13:12In the 19th century,
-
13:12 - 13:15when Muslims were looking
at Europe as an example, -
13:15 - 13:18they were independent;
they were more self-confident. -
13:18 - 13:21In the early 20th century,
with the fall of the Ottoman Empire, -
13:21 - 13:23the whole Middle East was colonized.
-
13:23 - 13:26And when you have colonialization,
what do you have? -
13:26 - 13:28You have anti-colonialization.
-
13:28 - 13:31So Europe is not just
an example now to emulate; -
13:31 - 13:34it's an enemy to fight and to resist.
-
13:34 - 13:38So there's a very sharp decline
in liberal ideas in the Muslim world, -
13:38 - 13:44and what you see is more of a defensive,
rigid, reactionary strain, -
13:44 - 13:47which led to Arab socialism,
Arab nationalism -
13:47 - 13:49and ultimately to the Islamist ideology.
-
13:50 - 13:53And when the colonial period ended,
-
13:53 - 13:58what you had in place of that
was generally secular dictators, -
13:58 - 13:59which say they're a country,
-
13:59 - 14:01but did not bring
democracy to the country, -
14:01 - 14:03and established their own dictatorship.
-
14:05 - 14:08And I think the West,
at least some powers in the West, -
14:08 - 14:10particularly the United States,
-
14:10 - 14:13made the mistake of supporting
those secular dictators, -
14:13 - 14:16thinking that they were more
helpful for their interests. -
14:16 - 14:20But the fact that those dictators
suppressed democracy in their country -
14:20 - 14:23and suppressed Islamic
groups in their country -
14:23 - 14:25actually made the Islamists
much more strident. -
14:26 - 14:27So in the 20th century,
-
14:27 - 14:29you had this vicious cycle
in the Arab world, -
14:29 - 14:32where you have a dictatorship
suppressing its own people, -
14:32 - 14:34including the Islamic pious,
-
14:34 - 14:36and they're reacting in reactionary ways.
-
14:37 - 14:39There was one country, though,
-
14:39 - 14:44which was able to escape or stay away
from that vicious cycle. -
14:44 - 14:47And that's the country
where I come from, Turkey. -
14:47 - 14:50Turkey has never been colonized,
-
14:50 - 14:53so it remained as an independent nation
after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. -
14:53 - 14:55That's one thing to remember;
-
14:55 - 14:58it did not share
the same anti-colonial hype -
14:58 - 15:00that you can find in some other
countries in the region. -
15:00 - 15:02Secondly, and most importantly,
-
15:02 - 15:04Turkey became a democracy
-
15:04 - 15:06earlier than any of the countries
we are talking about. -
15:06 - 15:09In 1950, Turkey had the first
free and fair elections, -
15:10 - 15:12which ended the more
autocratic secular regime, -
15:12 - 15:14which was in the beginning of Turkey.
-
15:14 - 15:16And the pious Muslims in Turkey
-
15:16 - 15:20saw that they could change
the political system by voting. -
15:20 - 15:24And they realized that democracy
is something compatible with Islam, -
15:24 - 15:25compatible with their values,
-
15:25 - 15:27and they've been supportive of democracy.
-
15:27 - 15:29That's an experience
-
15:29 - 15:32that not every other Muslim nation
in the Middle East had, -
15:32 - 15:33until very recently.
-
15:34 - 15:36Secondly, in the past two decades,
-
15:36 - 15:39thanks to globalization,
thanks to the market economy, -
15:39 - 15:41thanks to the rise of a middle class,
-
15:41 - 15:46we in Turkey see what I define
as a rebirth of Islamic modernism. -
15:47 - 15:51Now, there's the more urban
middle-class pious Muslims -
15:51 - 15:53who, again, look at their tradition
-
15:53 - 15:56and see that there are
some problems in the tradition, -
15:56 - 15:59and understand that they need to be
changed and questioned and reformed. -
15:59 - 16:03And they look at Europe,
and see an example, again, to follow. -
16:03 - 16:06They see an example, at least,
to take some inspiration from. -
16:06 - 16:10That's why the EU process,
Turkey's effort to join the EU, -
16:11 - 16:15has been supported inside Turkey
by the Islamic pious, -
16:15 - 16:17while some secular nationalists
were against it. -
16:18 - 16:20Well, that process
has been a little bit blurred -
16:20 - 16:23by the fact that not all
Europeans are that welcoming, -
16:23 - 16:24but that's another discussion.
-
16:25 - 16:28But the pro-EU sentiment
in Turkey in the past decade -
16:29 - 16:33has become almost an Islamic cause
and supported by the Islamic liberals -
16:33 - 16:36and the secular liberals
as well, of course. -
16:36 - 16:38And thanks to that,
-
16:38 - 16:41Turkey has been able
to reasonably create a success story -
16:41 - 16:46in which Islam and the most pious
understandings of Islam -
16:46 - 16:48have become part of the democratic game,
-
16:48 - 16:52and even contributes to the democratic
and economic advance of the country. -
16:54 - 16:58And this has been
an inspiring example right now -
16:58 - 17:01for some of the Islamic movements
-
17:01 - 17:05or some of the countries
in the Arab world. -
17:07 - 17:10You must have all seen the Arab Spring,
-
17:10 - 17:13which began in Tunis and in Egypt.
-
17:14 - 17:17Arab masses just revolted
against their dictators. -
17:18 - 17:21They were asking for democracy;
they were asking for freedom. -
17:21 - 17:24And they did not turn out to be
the Islamist boogeyman -
17:24 - 17:29that the dictators were always using
to justify their regime. -
17:29 - 17:32They said, "We want freedom;
we want democracy. -
17:32 - 17:34We are Muslim believers,
-
17:34 - 17:37but we want to be living
as free people in free societies." -
17:38 - 17:40Of course, this is a long road.
-
17:40 - 17:44Democracy is not an overnight
achievement; it's a process. -
17:44 - 17:48But this is a promising era
in the Muslim world. -
17:48 - 17:51And I believe that the Islamic modernism
which began in the 19th century, -
17:51 - 17:53but which had a setback
in the 20th century -
17:53 - 17:56because of the political
troubles of the Muslim world, -
17:56 - 17:57is having a rebirth.
-
17:58 - 18:02And I think the takeaway message
from that would be that Islam, -
18:02 - 18:06despite some of the skeptics in the West,
these days -
18:06 - 18:08has the potential in itself
-
18:08 - 18:11to create its own way to democracy,
create its own way to liberalism, -
18:12 - 18:14create its own way to freedom.
-
18:14 - 18:16They just should be allowed
to work for that. -
18:16 - 18:18Thanks so much.
-
18:18 - 18:23(Applause)
- Title:
- Faith versus tradition in Islam | Mustafa Akyol | TEDxWarwick
- Description:
-
Journalist Mustafa Akyol talks about the way that some local cultural practices (such as wearing a headscarf) have become linked, in the popular mind, to the articles of faith of Islam. Has the world's general idea of the Islamic faith focused too much on tradition, and not enough on core beliefs?
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDxTalks
- Duration:
- 18:28
TED Translators admin edited English subtitles for TEDxWarwick - Mustafa Akyol - Islam and Liberty | ||
TED Translators admin edited English subtitles for TEDxWarwick - Mustafa Akyol - Islam and Liberty |