An interview with, and story of, Edip Yuksel, a Kurdish-Turkish-American author and progressive activist. Front Page Mag has an interesting interview today, of a former Islamist and still devout, practicing Muslim, Edip Yuksel.
While Jamie Glazov allows the author a lot of latitude during his recounting of his history and background, the interview however shows that some form of reformation of Islam is possible. Yuksel recounts his first experiences with the Turkish police and said the following:
Yuksel: “I was arrested on the night of September 12, 1980 Turkish military coup as an alleged seditionist and I would spend about 4 years in prison. I was picked up like a panda from the street in Fatih/Istanbul while walking with an Egyptian and British member of Muslim Brotherhood. I was interrogated for about three weeks in horrible conditions (not much different what we know about Gitmo) by state security police.”
Glazov lets the former Islamist slide with his comparison of a Turkish jail with Gitmo, the place where the US is currently holding the jihadis captured on the battlefield. It’s well known fact that the conditions the jihadis are held in are by no means comparable to what Turkey has to offer, but anyways.
Yuksel: “I do not think that a terrorist is any different than a soldier or military commander captured in a war.”
He is wrong on that score as well, privately funded jihadi army militias are not the same as a military force under the control of a state. They are not answerable to any civil government and its civil and military laws, that govern all other state armies. In short, terrorists are rogue elements that function outside of any civilized rule of law, and are not afforded the same protections under the proper reading of the Geneva Conventions.
Edip Yuksel believes that “today’s Islam has little to do with Muhammad’s original message, but rather is a religion concocted using fabricated narration and medieval Arab culture (Hadith and Sunna), and falsely attributing these to Prophet Muhammad.”
I of course take issue with that notion, due to the fact that Islam’s prophet left clear “open ended” commands for the faithful of Islam to follow, and a crucial part of those Qur’anic commands contain the jihad ideology. At any given time when the Islamists (who believe that they are the true followers of Mohamed’s Islam) feel that Islam is in ascendancy, the dorment “genie of the jihad ideology” can be let loose from its lantern and the fight continued.
But I do applaud the man for wanting to re-interprit the Islamic religion, and get rid of the ideology that keeps most of the Islamic world, either intimidated by, or enthralled with, the violent message of jihad. Edip Yuksel should be supported in his efforts in reigning in the jihadi ideology, even if it means turning a blind eye now and then, to how he himself interprits Islam’s religious past and its meanings. It’s a start at least. More here. *L* KGS
