I'm about ready to change themes in this blog for a while, having written quite a bit about religious extremism and its dangers over the last few posts. But before I do, I'd like to call your attention to an important article in last Sunday's Washington Post: it can be found in the Outlook section, and is titled "[Sexism Deleted] in Turkey." The author is Mustafa Akyol, a Turkish journalist, and he writes on the subject of the reform of Islamic tradition in that country - specifically, a move by Turkey's religious authorities to revise the hadiths by removing some of the most violent and mysoginistic statements. The hadiths are the non-Koranic commentary on the words and deeds of the prophet Mohammed, and they represent a very large proportion of the basis of sharia, or Islamic law. The hadiths contain statements like these, which the Turkish revisions would remove:

"Women are imperfect in intellect and religion;"

"If a woman doesn't satisfy her husband's desires, she should choose herself a place in hell;" and,

"Your prayer will be invalid if a donkey, black dog, or a woman passes in front of you."

The full article is very much worth your time in reading. You can find a link to it at the Washington Post website (www.washingtonpost.com) or, if you can find the July 16th issue in your library, the article is on page B2 of the Outlook section. It will make you realize two things: Islam is a religion much in need of reform; and Turkey's tradition of a somewhat gentler interpretation of Islam is a sign of hope in the otherwise poisonous religious atmosphere of the Middle East.

Have a good day. We'll move on to new thoughts on new topics tomorrow.

Bilbo