Liberal & Conservative Islam

1. Turkey --- Saudi Arabia Liberal & Conservative Islam

2. Where Is Shari’a Practiced? • Government under God. In those Muslim countries where Islam is the official religion listed in the constitution, Sharia Law is declared to be a source, or the source, of the laws. Examples include: • Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates, where the governments derive their legitimacy from Islam. • In Pakistan, Iran, and Iraq, among others, it is also forbidden to enact legislation that is antithetical to Islam. • Saudi Arabia employs one of the strictest interpretations of sharia. Women are not allowed to drive, are under the guardianship of male relatives at all times, and must be completely covered in public. Elsewhere, governments are much more lenient, as in the United Arab Emirates, where alcohol is tolerated. Non-Muslims are not expected to obey sharia and in most countries, they are the jurisdiction of special committees and adjunct courts under the control of the government. • Completely Secular.Muslim countries where the government is declared to be secular in the constitution include: • Azerbaijan, Egypt, Tajikistan, Chad, Somalia, and Senegal. Islamist parties run for office occasionally in these countries and sharia often influences local customs. Popular Islamist groups are often viewed as a threat by existing governments. • Turkey: Under the suspicion that the majority party, the Islamist Justice and Development Party, was trying to establish sharia, Turkey's chief prosecutor petitioned the constitutional court (Economist) in March 2008 to bar the party from politics altogether. One of the politicians indicted, Prime Minister RecepTayyipErdogan, told Newsweek, "Turkey has achieved what people said could never be achieved--a balance between Islam, democracy, secularism and modernity."

3. Comparison… Conservative- Saudi Arabia Liberal- Turkey Conservative: holding to traditional attitudes and values and cautious about change or innovation, typically in relation to politics or religion. disposed to preserve exist-ing conditions, institutions, or to restore traditional ones, CIA factbook: Saudi Arabia BBC Country Profile: SA • Liberal: • Favorable to progress or re-form, as in political or re-ligious affairs. • Noting or pertaining to a pol-itical party advocatingmea-sures of progressive political reform. • open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values. • CIA factbook: Turkey • BBC Country Profile: Turkey

5. Shari'a Law “the path” • Islamic Code of Laws based on: • No separation between Church and State! • 4 Main sources of Sharia • The Qur’an • Sunna: teachings of Muhammad • Ijma- Perceptions of religious Scholars • Qiyas- methods that arose when jurists agreed on new legal principles Directly from Muhammad Not from Muhammad’s teaching

6. Word Worm: • Wahhabi: • a member of a strictly orthodox Sunni Muslim sect from Saudi Arabia; strives to purify Islamic beliefs and rejects any innovation occurring after the 3rd century of Islam; "Osama bin Laden was said to be a Wahhabi Muslim" • Orthodox • Adhering to what is commonly accepted, customary, or traditional • Madrassa • “school” in Arabic; in modern usage, generally refers to Islamic religious schools. • Secular • the state of being separate from religion

7. Wahhabi • The Wahhabi ulama reject reinterpretation of Quran and sunna in regard to issues clearly settled by the early jurists. By rejecting the validity of reinterpretation, Wahhabi doctrine is at odds with the Muslim reformation movement of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This movement seeks to reinterpret parts of the Quran and sunna to conform with standards set by the West, most notably standards relating to gender relations, family law, and participatory democracy. However, ample scope for reinterpretation remains for Wahhabi jurists in areas not decided by the early jurists.

8. How popular? • Wahhabism is official in Saudi Arabia. It is influential in Qatar, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. It has a substantial following in Yemen, which also has many Shia Muslims. It is unpopular in Bahrain and irrelevant in Oman. • Outside the Peninsula, Wahhabism is generally unpopular. But where trouble is found, Wahhabism may thrive. Hamas in Israel represents pure Wahhabism. Forms of neo-Wahhabi or Wahhabized ideology have been powerful in Egypt (the Muslim Brotherhood) and in Pakistan — in both countries neo-Wahhabis lead attacks on other Muslims and other faiths. But in both countries mainstream Muslim scholars continue to struggle against Wahhabism. Wahhabi aggression was defeated in Algeria and Tajikistan. • Stephen Schwartz on Islam and Wahhabism.

9. Frontline:Saudi Time Bomb? • For more than two centuries, Wahhabism has been Saudi Arabia's dominant faith. It is an austere form of Islam that insists on a literal interpretation of the Qur’an. Strict Wahhabis believe that all those who don't practice their form of Islam are heathens and enemies. Critics say that Wahhabism's rigidity has led it to misinterpret and distort Islam, pointing to extremists such as Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. • Wahhabism's explosive growth began in the 1970s when Saudi charities started funding Wahhabi schools (madrassas) and mosques from Islamabad to Culver City, California. Here are excerpts from FRONTLINE's interviews with Mai Yamani, an anthropologist who studies Saudi society; Vali Nasr, an authority on Islamic fundamentalism; Maher Hathout, spokesperson for the Islamic Center of Southern California; and Ahmed Ali, a Shi'a Muslim from Saudi Arabia. (Also see the Links and Readings section of this site for more analyses of Wahhabism and Saudi Arabia.) Interview

10. The Women… • Huffington Post Blog: • http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/saudi-arabia-women • Wadjda: • http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/16/wadjda-oscars-saudi-arabia • Women will vote: • http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/26/world/middleeast/women-to-vote-in-saudi-arabia-king-says.html?pagewanted=all • Women who dared to drive: • http://www.ted.com/talks/manal_al_sharif_a_saudi_woman_who_dared_to_drive.html

11. Turkey

12. Comparison… Liberal- Turkey Conservative- Saudi Arabia Conservative: holding to traditional attitudes and values and cautious about change or innovation, typically in relation to politics or religion. disposed to preserve exist-ing conditions, institutions, or to restore traditional ones, CIA factbook: Saudi Arabia BBC Country Profile: SA • Liberal: • Favorable to progress or re-form, as in political or re-ligious affairs. • Noting or pertaining to a pol-itical party advocatingmea-sures of progressive political reform. • open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values. • CIA factbook: Turkey • BBC Country Profile: Turkey

13. 2013: Protests What Happened? Turkish Prime Minister RecepTayyipErdogan “Concerns at creeping Islamisation spilled over into mass protests in various cities in the summer of 2013, to which the police responded with violence and the government with a confusion of bluster and apology. For the first time in his decade in power, Prime Minister Erdogan began to look politically vulnerable.”- BBC Country Profile Alcohol banned: End to Turkey’s Headscarf White Turks/ Black Turks The Story • What started as a peaceful sit-in over plans to demolish a park (GEZI PARK) in central Istanbul has grown to become the biggest protest movement against Turkish Prime Minister RecepTayyipErdogansince he was elected more than 10 years ago. • The police crackdown on the park demonstrators set off the wider unrest. Now, the scope of the protests shows there is a bigger issue, about freedom of speech and accusations of heavy-handed government, at stake. • Elected to power than a decade ago, Erdogan is the most powerful politicianTurkey has seen in generations, but his approach to leadership doesn't sit well with all Turks. • What’s next? • CNN (with pictures) • Live Protests via Social Media

14. Three cups of tea