Dear Brother Edip,
I did try to sign in and post a comment under the article of the shown
link. But though I was shown as a new member, unfortunately I could
not succeed in posting the comment. The following was my comment:
You do not win a case against a personality by caricaturing him, or
against a religion or a religious book by making a mockery of it.
Appealing to reason does not necessarily mean forsaking ideas
presented in any book, let alone a religious book. Well, what is
basically wrong with citing the universally accepted divine book of
Muslims to urge Muslims, who have failed to apply reasoning, and are
blindly following spurious teachings of the Hadith and Sunnah, to
apply their mind to find the real truth. The Quran does not encourage
blind obedience. Rather it brands those who fail to apply their reason
or sense as “deaf, dumb, and blind (2:171).” Accepting divine
revelation as truth is not foolish; rather rejecting it is foolish. As
a prominent contemporary Muslim scholar Jeffrey Lang beautifully puts
it, those who benefit the most from the Quran are ‘persons of
insight,’ ‘firmly rooted in knowledge,’ ‘use their reason,’ and ‘stand
on clear evidence and proof. While those who oppose revelation are
‘deluded,’ ‘in manifest error,’ ‘ignorant,’ ‘foolish,’ ‘have no
understanding,’ ‘only follow surmise and conjecture,’ and blindly
adhere to tradition (Losing My Religion: A Call for Help, Amana
Publishers, Beltsville (Maryland), 2004, p. 65). The Quran also
repeatedly asks us to think and ponder. Thus as Lang further notes:
The message is plain enough: to gain truer faith, we need to free
ourselves from inherited notions and examine our beliefs rationally
(Ibid, p. 66).
Well, if you are determined to reject any faith, it is no use arguing
with you. I believe that faith and reason are not necessarily
inconsistent or antithetical to each other.
As regards the other points about Edip’s position on the Number 19,
one may have different opinions on it. But, to my mind, this does not
imperil his standing as an outstanding contemporary Muslim thinker,
and as a great champion of genuine Islamic reform among Muslims. He is
a front-running leader of a movement that would definitely help the
world move toward a more peaceful phase. The Quran-only Islam is
strongly against any form of wrongdoing on earth – transgression,
injustice, intolerance, violence, and terrorism. Edip’s movement
rejects the literature that has helped perpetuate the harsh, extremist
version of Islam.
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http://www.jihadwatch.org/2009/10/fitzgerald-a-little-more-on-edip-yu...