Islam in the West: a good selection of essays in the new Harvard Review

The essays are, for the most part, conference papers that have been nicely edited for publication. Pieces by Richard Bulliet on Islamic reformation, Jytte Klausen on the Danish cartoon episode, Lucia Volk on youthful returnees to Lebanon and the cultural contradictions they confront, and Michael Freedman on promoting political reform and civil society are among the several that I found valuable.

Video link: Mustafa Akyol's Boston U. lecture, April 15, 2009.

BUniverse - Yes, We Can! Toward a Brave New Turkey

"Turkish journalist Mustafa Akyol discusses Turkey’s historical and contemporary struggle toward political and cultural modernity in the 2009 Campagna-Kerven Lecture on Modern Turkey. Since 1996, the lecture series has brought leading scholarly and popular authorities to Boston University to speak on Turkey’s changing society and its role in the Middle East. Although the country has long sought to embrace Western values, Akyol argues, recent developments are causing many Turks to reconsider what “westernization” actually means.

"Akyol begins with an overview of the region’s history, from the Ottoman Empire to the creation of the Republic of Turkey in the 1920s to the present. He argues that many observers wrongly overlook the religiously and ethnically diverse — and surprisingly tolerant — Ottoman society when seeking an explanation for Turkish Muslim’s relatively progressive attitudes: “The sum of the dichotomies between Islam and democracy was actually sorted out by Islamic intellectuals back in the nineteenth century,” Akyol asserts. He explains the rise of the Republic in the context of Turkey’s tendency to equate modernization with westernization. Throughout the last century, he notes, liberals have tried to force social reforms on the Turkish people, while “democracy” has been equated with allowing people to live more traditional lifestyles (such as a Muslim woman choosing to wear a headscarf). Now, he says, the Turkish middle class is beginning to regard religious freedom as more of a Western idea than as enforced modern customs.

"After examining both historical and current episodes in Turkish life, Akyol concludes that, despite a growing Islamist sentiment within the country, religious struggles ultimately will not destabilize the nation. It is rising Turkish nationalism, he says, and not traditional Islam, that “has turned into a force which opposes anything that is new.” But, he says, the people who have corrupted Ataturk’s legacy — such as two retired generals who are now on trial for attempting a coup — are showing Turkish citizens that “the people who claim to be patriots can also be criminals.”"

BU Universe videos.

Obama’s Turkish Partners

An excellent piece on the importance of Turkey's AKP "experiment", and its Kemalist detractors.
Obama’s Turkish Partners | Print Article | Newsweek.com

But also see this piece on Erdogan's turn rightward, a theme previously noted here.

Soroush and the question of placing Islam in historical context

Dale Eickelman's decade-old piece remains a good starting point for situating Soroush among contemporary Muslim reformers.
Idea Lab - Who Wrote the Koran? - NYTimes.com

Originally posted in Ramadan two years ago, I thought some readers might find this Egypt-focused primer handy. The month-long fast began Sept. 1, 2008

Living in Egypt: Ramadan Kareem

Turkish President plays pay-back

Earlier this year, the Islamically-oriented AK party attempted to lift a ban on women wearing head scarves entering Turkish universities. The effort was then overturned by the Constitutional Court, which ruled that the wearing of head scarves violates Turkish secular norms. For many secular Turks, the head scarves represented an attempt to Islamicize the universities, but for advocates of lifting the ban the scarves are simply an expression of personal freedom, in this case to dress conservatively. With the ban in place, religiously conservative Turkish women must either forego a university education or compromise their morals.
President Gul, a member of the Ak party, passed over candidates for rectors' positions when those candidates worked to thwart the lifting of the scarf ban.
Turkish Professors Quit as President Rejects Rectors Who Opposed Lifting Head-Scarf Ban - Chronicle.com

It will be interesting to watch how this appointment is received

The idea of appointing an ambassador or special envoy came out of the bureaucracy in Washington. In fact, I first heard the idea more than two years ago. One wonders why it took so long. The new enjoy is a successful Ismaili named Sada Cumber. The Ismailis, led by the Aga Khan, are a Shi'i sect and many of the adherents are quite successful nowadays. In all, they account for less than two percent of all Muslims.
They have evolved considerably over the centuries, and it might be remembered that the Ismailis (or Nizaris) are the sect that gave rise of the cult of assassins in the Eleventh century. In contrast, the Ismailis are often pillars of the establishment, wherever they may live. [Updated: Mr. Cumber has been a generous supporter of Republican candidates, including the current president and the candidate who flopped, Rudy Guliani. The former NYC mayor railed ad naseum against "Islamofascism."]
Cumber was born in Karachi, and the following report is from Bangladesh.
The New Nation - Internet Edition

Tariq Ramadan will take up post at Oxford

The Chronicle: Daily news: 08/31/2005 -- 02: "A prominent European Muslim scholar who last year was refused a visa to travel to the United States to take up a teaching post at the University of Notre Dame will begin a visiting fellowship this fall at the University of Oxford.
Tariq Ramadan, a professor of Islamic studies and philosophy who is based in Paris and holds Swiss citizenship, resigned his tenured faculty appointment at Notre Dame's Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies after his visa was revoked at the request of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The United States government offered no explanation for its action, citing only the terms of the USA Patriot Act, and the move was widely criticized by civil-liberties groups and many academics as an infringement of academic freedom (The Chronicle, September 10, 2004). "