Now that the Turkish government seems to have come to terms with the idea of a woman wearing a scarf on her head, they can move on the bigger and more ambitious projects:
The country’s powerful Department of Religious Affairs has commissioned a team of theologians at Ankara University to carry out a fundamental revision of the Hadith, the second most sacred text in Islam after the Koran.
An adviser to the project, Felix Koerner, says some of the sayings - also known individually as “hadiths” - can be shown to have been invented hundreds of years after the Prophet Muhammad died, to serve the purposes of contemporary society.
“Unfortunately you can even justify through alleged hadiths, the Muslim - or pseudo-Muslim - practice of female genital mutilation,” he says.
“You can find messages which say ‘that is what the Prophet ordered us to do’. But you can show historically how they came into being, as influences from other cultures, that were then projected onto Islamic tradition.”
And for those of you who may be wondering, the project’s Felix Koerner is actually a Jesuit priest.
8 comments ↓
That’s odd. For centuries, Hadith scholars have busied themselves with sorting out the Hadith for centuries. Does this Jesuit Priest and the ‘Theologians’ he purports to be ‘advising’ should probably take note of this niggling little point.
Medieval hadith scholars were aware of the possibility that some of the hadiths that are attributed to the Prophet have been forged. The wholesale “re-dating” of hadiths to later centuries, however, is a funny orientalistic position. Medieval Muslim jurists had a better way of critically reading particular hadiths, looking at each one on a case by case basis. Intellectually lazy people cannot afford that.
According to the IslamToday website, the media is misrepresenting this hadith project:
http://www.islamtoday.com/show.....at_id=1790
BBC claims of hadith reworking unfounded
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-.....ink=135202
The Turkish government cannot be trusted to do anything related to religion. They will coopt and corrupt everything to suit their fascist purposes.
[…] only ones concerned about this Turkish “review”, which by the way is occuring under the watchful eye of a Jesuit priest. I bet all traditionalists (anyone who sticks to the Quran, Sunnah and our scholarly heritage = […]
[…] of the very foundations of Islam is obscuring the original values of Islam. Brilliant. According to astrolabe.com the adviser to the project, Felix Koerner, is a Jesuit priest. Take from that what you will. Aside […]
Although a comprehensive Hadith Project is needed to Unite Muslims as the one proposed in :
http://asimiqbal.2.googlepages.com/hadith2.htm
The Turkish Hadith Project as discussed in this official press release which is copied and listed at the end of http://asimiqbal.2.googlepages.com/hadith2.htm looks unorthodox and strange in some aspects.
Specially the statements:
Quote…the interpretations concerning hadith narrations, making necessary amendments in cases of misconceptions and omitting the issues and interpretations which do not have current value…
(Comments: Making ammendments is not allowed, they can give arguments regarding authenticity or non-authenticity but making ammendments is not acceptable. Similarly completely ommiting issues which according to them are not of value today is not good)
Quote…the Traditions are explained within the context of the unity of Hadith and the Quranic verses…
(Comments: Qur’an is the 1st source, Hadith is the 2nd source, so what is this unity of the 2 unique sources. Does it mean they reject all Hadith whose related topics are not found in the Qur’an)
Quote…making use of the interpretations which have appeared in the Islamic tradition as well as early Qur’anic commentaries, jurisprudence, theology and life of the Prophet of Islam…
(Hadith is independent of tafsir, theology, biographical works, jurispudence works etc… and can’t be judged based on these works)
I won’t make any further comments here:
I can be reached at:
http://asimiqbal.2.googlepages.com
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