I like conservative dress.   If I were a Muslim I would wear clothes like these.  Of course the models are all skinny and beautiful, but aren't they always?

I am having trouble with photos, please be patient...

From Teheran

EO,

Why do your threads always seem to have a "goody" and a "baddy"?

(This time the Muslims are okay - it's those pesky Russians.)

I was kinda looking forward to a thread that was just positive............

Pilgrims Progress, at least the post from Eastern Orthodox makes the point (often forgotten, especially in the United States) that Muslims don't have to be "the enemy." We're often on the same side.

You can find a huge collection of positive "good news" stories about Muslims here:

http://muslimpositive.blogspot.com/

What saddens me is that there's a perceived need to have such a thread, but many of the posts about Muslims on Wonder Cafe have tended to emphasize the negative and encourage (even if unintentionally) fear of Islam.

Don't wish to tell you your job, Rev, but we're all on the same side.

I don't actually know if I agree with you on that, Pilgrims Progress. I would agree that we're all children of the same God and equally loved by that God.

I guess it depends on what drives your faith - is it primarily doctrine based or experienced?

When I experienced God in my life - at a time of a "dark time of the soul" - a shift of perception occurred.

I experienced what I now consider the truth, that there is only connection and unity - the perception that  we are separate is mankind's  false reality - and causes no end of trouble...............

Here is an interesting article about Muslims, immigration and the positive work of some despite the obstacles.....

Special report   By Jennifer Green , The Ottawa Citizen

For Ali Khan, the important thing is not going backward or forward. It’s reaching out so all faiths can live together. He has seen first-hand what sectarian violence can do.

Azhar Ali Khan was awarded the Order of Canada in 2009.  He has lived in Canada since 1965 and was a career journalist both before and after coming to Canada.

LB

---------------------------

Remember, remember always that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.

      Franklin D. Roosevelt

Interesting. I also don't think I'd agree that my faith is "primarily doctrine based." There are things that I believe quite strongly (and, actually, would not your statement "that there is only connection and unity" also be "doctrine" - just of a different kind?) but my basic metaphor for faith is that of a journey in which we are constantly travelling and constantly experiencing new and different things and sometimes shifting our understanding accordingly. There are things I once believed very strongly that I've discarded along the way because they no longer make sense to me, or, more accurately, I can no longer see them as viable because of the continual journey of faith;  that continual reflection on what God wants from us. There are other things I've come to believe because the journey of faith has led me to new understandings. Doctrine is fluid, and must be if we're willing to concede that we don't know everything there is to know about God or about the world or the universe. So while "doctrine" (a set of core beliefs) is central to my faith - and I would say to anyone's faith - I try to avoid "dogma" -  a word which suggests to me an unyielding attachment to my doctrine and a belief that others must share that doctrine - or else!

Connection and unity are the goal of faith; the ultimate purpose of God. As Christ said "that they may be one." But in my opinion they are not yet fulfilled. Our "separateness" is more than a perception or false reality; it is the human condition which God seeks to overcome through the ministry of reconciliation Christ engaged and engages in. In more traditional Christian language, our separateness is in a way the state of fallenness in which we exist and from which God is actively working to redeem us.

So when I say above in my first reply to Eastern Orthodox that it's sad that this type of thread needs to exist, I am in fact lamenting the conditions that even create the option of seeing Muslims and Christians as "us vs them" (and therefore the perceived need to have a thread to point out the good things that "they" do) - because God is seeking to reconcile us all (both to God and to one another) but I can't deny the reality (perceived or not) that such mentality exists in the world.

The media, print, visual and now the wild web, focus on what gets attention. The top stories in a Google search, for example, are often sorted by number of hits.  The top stories on news sites are also loaded by number of hits.  In the days of yore, it was what stories required the greatest number of editions to sate the hunger of the public.

Whatever gets the most attention from the buying public is what will get the most prominent display.  So, sometimes it is not only good for our souls to seek out and promote the good that happens in our communities, nations and the world itself but it can reshape the optics presented.

Sometimes we don't get to see what we look for but what is constantly put before us....

LB

---------------------------

Inside my empty bottle I was constructing a lighthouse while all the others were making ships. 

      Charles Simic

Pilgrim, you are a kind-hearted woman, with a wonderfully positive attitude.  If all the world were made up of people like you, there would be no problems.

But let me tell you a story.   A very good friend of mine (from years back) had a very sweet mother.   She was the kindest, most good-hearted woman you could imagine.   Now it turned out that her daughter was in a bad marriage.   In fact, although her husband had not hit her, he had killed her dog by kicking it and was verbally abusive to her.

But her mother could not accept that this man could have any flaws.   She was not even open to thinking about it.   As a result, it was very difficult for my friend to break away from this abusive relationship (my friend was young at the time, in her 20's, and her father was not interested in her problems at all).  

Is it possible to be too nice?   Failure to recognize evil can empower it.   I can't agree that "we are all on the same side."   I will agree that human nature, on the whole, is the same the world over, and every nation and culture has its own wicked and wonderful people.  

Also, I am not dumping on the Russians.  I thought I could safely get away with trashing the late and unlamented USSR.   Certainly, we have many people in my congregation from former communist countries, none of them with positive stories to tell about that era.   (Did you know you couldn't buy cheese in communist-era Romania?   You had to make it yourself).

EO,

Much as I hate to disillusion you - I am often not kind or positive. (All the same, I thank you for the compliment).

Life is a journey, a road that has many twists and turns. Along the road we encounter experiences that are defining moments. These experiences shape the person we become.

Sometimes these experiences  are so profound they can cause us to discard previously held ideas.

Spiritual experiences definitely fall into this category.

I have no rational explanation for it, but since that moment, I have a "new" understanding of faith.

A shift of perception occurred - and with it a new understanding of life itself. The world around me operated in the same way, but it was as if I saw it through a different lens.

I experienced connection and unity with all there is.

I now believe this is how life is meant to be. When Jesus talked about the Kingdom of God - I had glimpsed it.

I no longer believe in evil people, we all have intrinsic worth.

That's not to say there are those that haven't experienced unconditional love out there - and act out with others their lack of self-worth............

That's how I would view that man in your story.

We can readily see the harm that such people do to others - but I believe they harm themselves as well. He was suffering - just as he made others suffer.

That's not to say I condone such behaviour. I don't.

But, I'm left with the thought that if he'd experienced a sense of connection and unity - would he have acted in that way?

Even on a daily level we can experience unity and connection.

A common feature is an absence of ego -eg. listening to a favourite piece of music you are with the music - you "forget" yourself.

And it feels "right", doesn't it?

My favourite example comes from the pen of theologian Frederick Buechner - .

"Whenever you find tears in your eyes, especially unexpected tears, it is well to pay close attention.

They are not only telling you something about the secret of who you are, but more often than not, God is speaking to you through them of the mystery of where you have come from and is summoning you to where, if your soul is to be saved, you should go next."

Seems to me we agree more than we disagree.

The journey as a basic metaphor for faith works for me also.

We started our journey in different places - crossed the same intersection - and hopefully will end the journey at the same destination........

I can't recall anyone ever posting a negative article about Muslims. Of course, I myself have posted pieces about repression by the Iranian state, Jew-hatred among Palestinians (of whichever religion), etc. But such articles can only be about Muslims in the mind of a bigot.

Also, it seems to me that people who ignore the issue of Jew-hatred in the middle east, clearly can't be interested in peace.

I suspect you're right, Pilgrims Progress!

I am not referring to anything posted by you, Brian.  It was from before you came on board.  

I will have more time to post over the long weekend.

If I wait till I write my own book review, I might never get there, so here is one from WSJ for a really good book (I have read it), by a "pious Muslim and classic liberal."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405311190355490457645856354379872...

Islam Without Extremes: A Muslim Case For Liberty

by Mustafa Akyol

Piety And Pluralism

Liberal democracy can grow on Muslim soil if neither Islamists nor secular strongmen are allowed to mix religion with politics.

 By MATTHEW KAMINSKI

Modern Turkey dazzles the eye and addles the mind. With growth in double digits and shiny new buildings everywhere, the old "sick man of Europe" looks more like a Eurasian China—though with minarets, an aggressive media and free elections. The man who oversaw this rebirth, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, began his political career from within Turkey's Islamist movement. He won a third term in June in a landslide, campaigning with an iPad in one hand and prayer beads in the other. In recent years he has sidelined the powerful Turkish military and sought to loosen decades-old restrictions on traditional Muslim dress. Some of his opponents are in jail on treason charges. Critics call him a dictator and an Islamist. His supporters credit him with the country's economic miracle and its new openness to democratic principles.

So which is it? To find an answer, a good place to start is Mustafa Akyol's "Islam Without Extremes." A columnist for English-language papers in Turkey, Mr. Akyol offers a delightfully original take on Turkey and on the prospects for liberal democracy in the broader Islamic Middle East. Throughout the 20th century, Turkey and other Middle Eastern countries were offered a choice between secular and religious authoritarianism. What the Muslim world needs, he says, is a "synthesis of Islam and liberalism." Today's Turkey comes closest to that ideal.

Mr. Akyol, a pious Muslim and a classical liberal, begins his case by proposing a serious rereading of the Quran. "The idea of freedom—in the theological, political, or economic sense—was not unknown in classical Islamdom, as some have claimed," Mr. Akyol writes. He notes that the Quran, compiled in the seventh century, broke with the traditions of its time and place—by mandating protections for property, appealing to the judgment of reason and promoting the idea of a rule of law (as opposed to rule by the whim of despots). Taking inspiration from the separation of church and state in the American constitution, Mr. Akyol suggests that a liberal democracy can be built on Muslim soil as long as neither Islamists nor secular strongmen are allowed to mix religion with politics.

Mr. Akyol offers a historical narrative that shows how, within Islam, an idea of freedom was lost over time. Islam was once the world's "supercivilization," a leader in science and the arts as well as a great military and economic power. Arguments over what brought it low have raged for centuries. Mr. Akyol blames the triumph of "the culture of the desert" in the Middle Ages. In the language of our day, the Muslim world lost its competitive edge.

In its early phases, Mr. Akyol says, Islam was a religion "driven by merchants and their rational, vibrant and cosmopolitan mindset." But ultimately "the more powerful classes of the Orient—the landlords, the soldiers and the peasants—became dominant, and a less rational and more static mindset began to shape the religion. The more trade declined, the more the Muslim mind stagnated." Applying this historical lesson today, Mr. Akyol claims that "socioeconomic progress in Muslim societies" may change Islam itself—leading to progress in "religious attitudes, ideas, and even doctrines."

In any culture, an open society and a free economy are the foundation stones of liberalism. In the Muslim world, Turkey's experience is most instructive. As the Ottoman Empire crumbled, the founder of the modern republic, Kemal Atatürk (1881-1938) took inspiration for his republican secularism—to the liberals' regret—from France's rigid laïcité, which put religion under the aegis of the state. His centralized government and statist economic ideas came from Bismarck's Germany. Atatürk was the last century's least bloody and probably most successful social engineer. After his death, Kemalism remained locked in place for decades. Turkey was beset by coups and economic crises. By the 1980s it had reached a point of stagnation, if not crisis.

The hero of Mr. Akyol's story is Turgut Özal, who dominated Turkish politics for a decade until his untimely death in 1993. Unashamed of his faith, he was the first modern Turkish leader to make the pilgrimage to Mecca. He had lived in the West and had worked in business, and he understood free markets. Özal gave Turkey the "gift of capitalism," in Mr. Akyol's words. As the economy opened to the world, so did Turkish society and politics. A new entrepreneurial class emerged in the country's conservative heartland to challenge the secular establishment in Istanbul and Ankara. In the 1990s, as an old and corrupt political guard ruined the economy, Mr. Erdogan emerged as a fresh talent. His popularity as mayor of Istanbul was tied largely to his ability to deliver city services.

As prime minister, Mr. Erdogan has built on the Özal legacy. Early on he won over conservative business owners as well as many secular Turks. Though the leaders of the country's military, loyal to the Kemalist creed, made their dislike of Mr. Erdogan clear, most voters ignored them—not because they harbored a secret desire for Shariah law but because a young, dynamic society was eager to see a durable democracy take hold.

The hurdle before Turkey today isn't the temptation of political Islam but the repressive legacy in the country's political culture and institutions, including the judiciary and security services. Past supporters of Mr. Erdogan, like Mr. Akyol, criticize the prime minister's increasingly authoritarian actions and pronouncements. But even if Mr. Erdogan wanted to grab Turkey by the throat and turn it into Iran-lite, the country has probably become too pluralistic, vibrant and messy for him (or anyone else) to succeed. Turkey's experience may be hard to replicate in the Arab world after this year's popular uprisings. Yet Turkey offers a useful corrective to the fatalistic view that liberal democracy and Islam are destined to be enemies.

Mr. Kaminski is a member of the Journal's editorial board. 

Afghanistan has its first rock festival since 1975!

Sorry, I do not know how to embed videos, here is the link

http://www.rferl.org/video/26432.html

Mustafa Akyol's book "Islam without Extremes" looks like an interesting read. He says that what the Muslim World needs is "a synthesis of Islam and liberalism." Under Prime Minister Erdogan, this formula seems to be working as Turkish citizens are enjoying economic prosperity and newfound freedoms. Unfortunately, such is not the case for the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. True, the Palestinians are allowed to vote but their freedom of movement is severely restricted by Israeli checkpoints and permits...required in their own land no less. They face naval and air blockades and are not allowed on settler only roads. Three quarters of the population rely on food aid and try to make ends meet on $1.60 a day. This means there is little opportunity for higher education which explains the high rate of unemployment. I understand the Israeli need for security but  the repressive Israeli policies, particularly under Netanyahu, have gone too far.

Let us hope and pray for some kind of peace in Is/Pal.  I think all people of good will want that.  But the whole world seems to be going to hell in a hand-basket these days--the fallout of the economic crisis has made it hard to predict what it going to happen next.   It seems to be distracting everyone.

Turkey is quite prosperous.  It is more prosperous than any of the Arab countries (except the oil states).   It always had a more European orientation because the Ottoman Empire extended partly into Europe.  

Mustafa Akyol's book is a good book, gives a good history of how the different schools of Islamic thinking developed over the centuries.  He also shows how layers of Hadiths built up over time, with no one able to figure out which were accurate.  He is thinking more like a critical Bible scholar might.

I also greatly enjoyed the novels of the Turkish Orhan Pamuk (a Nobel Prize winner in literature).   He also wrote a fascinating non-fiction book about Istanbul, full of old pictures.   He writes very well and gives you a good feeling for the place.  (He does not talk a lot about religion, he appears to be an atheist now, so I don't if I could include him in this thread).  But he is from an Islamic country.   What do you think?

(I have never been able to afford to travel abroad, so I like to read about exotic places).

I have at least two more books on Islam I intend to post about (one by an American Sufi, another by a man of East Indian descent living in England who was a radical Islamist for a while then came to his senses).   

I see from your profile that you like mysteries.  I just finished a really good one, set in Saudi Arabia, that has a cracking good plot, plus conveys a very good feeling for the atmosphere of Saudi.   The author (formerly married to a Saudi) lived there for several years and is clearly sympathetic to the country.  The home of Wahabism!  But she manages to make even this seem not so bad, as she develops the story of an ultra-pious man who gradually comes to realize that rigid adherence to every single rule is not the ultimate point of Islam.

It is called "City of Veils", by Zoe Ferraris.  I think you would like it.   Available in paperback (but no Kindle version)

https://www.amazon.ca/City-Veils-Novel-Zo%C3%AB-Ferraris/dp/0316074268/r...

That looks quite comfy :3

I last wore black in High School, when I was having fun with homemade smoke & flash 'bombs' doing Ninja Maneuvers in the local forest at night with some of my friends :3

Then I found out that my dandruff issue was permanent and not temporary, so I did the rational thing and now try to keep away from black tops.

Iran has very strict dress laws (the photo came from a Teheran fashion show).  There are laws about the colour of the woman's covering garment (black in this photo)--they can be dark navy blue, dark brown and that is about it.   Fashion police harass the women if any hair is showing,

But it even extends to men now!   Certain hair-cuts are not acceptable (spikes would never do), nor are men permitted to wear skin-tight T-shirts.  

On the other hand, in Egypt there is currently a fad for pastel hijabs of various hues while in Turkey they are often colourful and patterned (no fashion police in Egypt or Turkey or requirement that they be worn).

In some countries I should note that Christian woman typically cover their hair when they are actually in the church sanctuary.  It varies from country to country, how strict they are--I think they are more strict in the Middle East.

It is strictly optional in the Orthodox Church of America branch.  I like wearing them though and have a collection of colourful silk scarves just for that purpose.

EO

Thanks for the tip on "City of Veils." I could be interested if it doesn't become too political nor too serious. When I read fiction I am looking for escapism, lots of high tech stuff, fast action, suspense  and smart and beautiful women. 

On a more serious note, the one book on Islam I have read and would recommend is "Being Muslim" by Haroon Siddiqui who writes a column for the Toronto Star.

Here's a good ongoing success story:  two people meeting and living mindful, active & nuanced lives; both breaking through the cynicism and faux irony trying educate & help their fellow human beings in being able to live the life they want without fear, freeing them from state-promoted hate (using people's deeply-held beliefs against humanity) & know how to do it very skillfully.  And all still with a wonderful sense of humour.

Towards an explanation of terms

CAIR -- Council on Islamic-American Relations

Friends of Simon Wisenthal Center for Holocaust Studies

White Guilt -- the racism of lowered expectations, victimization.

Tarek Fatah

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

American Enterprise Institute 

Zuhdi Jasser

USA -- a Great Human Merryment

Islamic-American Forum for Democracy

The AHA Foundation

Wahhabi

Salafi

The Muslim Brotherhood

Muslim Canadian Congress

ISNA Islamic Society of North America

Geert Wilders

Tariq Ramadan

Paul Berman

Caroline Fourest

Islamists in the US government -- see 59:00 onwards

Islamophobia -- a brand created and promoted by Islamists to guide and control behaviours and slow down & stop critical thought that has had some success in the world.

"We're often on the same side." I think you would change your story if you lived in a Islamic country. Try proving that one in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran and dozens more. My friend (I hestitate to call you Rev. because I'm suspicious of your beliefs), let me remind you, there is but ONE ISLAM in the world. If you want to see what it's like (live and in action), take a look at forementioned countries . . . not what the media tries to spoonfeed you (sometimes through Islam-approved lenses). One other point. There is only ONE GOD, ONE FAITH and ONE BAPTISM. The God of Love is supreme and over all. He threatens no one and invites everyone to be participants of that love. If you don't want to share in the love, you will share in the condemnation which is the natural consequence of refusing love. Only one religion in the world is based on Love and you are a representative of that religion. We are not all on the same!

You might also enjoy "Infidel" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. A good read, true story.

Rev. Davis, anything that I state about Islam is intentional and would intentionally be meant to stoke fear of Islam. I look at various countries in the Middle East, and I'm in contact with Christian workers in Egypt and Pakistan. I would suggest for us as comfortable Christians who have exhausted all our avenues of fighting for something, to arrange for us and/or our churches to get in contact with Christians in Middle East countries (countries where Christians are allowed to exist) and lend a hand in helping them either in strengthening their faith in God so they can stand the severe persecution, or helping them escape to a country like Canada where they would be able to practice their religion freely. Why would I want to encourage Islam in any way here in Canada when I see what they have and are doing in these countries?

Now, whether this is good or bad or indifferent depends on what you think of television, but The Learning Channel is coming out with a 'reality TV show' called 'All-American Muslim'.

Air date is November 11, 2011.
 

Also, here's something that:

1. Reminds me of the stewardess in A Space Oddessy:  2001
2. Reminds me of THX1138
3. Looks quite practical for protecting against sunburn
4. Covering up the human body is even MORE enticing :3

I notice no one has commented on the photo of the woman in black that I showed (except you).   I thought she looked rather elegant (of course she is beautiful).  Must a woman be wearing a bikini or revealing clothes to be attractive? (I am not much of a judge on this, I will defer to male opinion.)

It looks like a interesting show, but I don't have time to watch TV!  But perhaps others would be interested...thanks for posting.

Also, I am an old-timer and don't know what this means: THX1138.

THX1138 was George Lucas' (the guy who made Star Wars?) first commercial movie.  It was a really trippy movie aboot a future society where people's lives are completely safe by living in a completely controlled society.

You can find clips of it all over youtube.  Some of the outfits reminded me of the birkinis :3

Holocaust Remembrance Conference in Morocco:

Mohammed V, Righteous among the Nations

http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/5749.htm

Honoured was:

....Morocco's late King Mohammed V, who refused to hand over Morocco's Jewish population to the French Vichy regime, which occupied Morocco at the time. [during WW II]

New York City's oldest bagel shop saved by some Muslims and capitalism:

"Not only are Safaryab Ali and Peerzada Shah rescuing the oldest Jewish bialy and bagel shop in New York City, but they vow to keep is kosher as well. The New York Daily News reports that Coney Island Bialys and Bagels was founded in 1920 by Morris Rosenzweig, a Jewish immigrant of Bialystok, Poland."

--excerpted from the linked to article

(a trifecta of positivism sure to annoy sombunall WCers:  Jews, Muslims & Capitalism)

Good one, Inanna

"In 1592, the Muslim emperor Akbar tried to start a free speech movement in India.  He promoted what he called Din-i Ilahi, a religion of tolerance towards Hindus, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists, and Christians.  He also promoted sulh-i kull, "universal peace."

-- pp 355 of Howard Bloom's The Genius of the Beast

Band challenges extremism (Pakistan)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/07/world/asia/beygairat-brigades-youtube-...

Note that in Iran (Shiite), the mosques are usually divided down the middle, with one side for women and one for men.  In Saudi Arabia, women are not allowed in mosques.

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/64668

Turkey: Making Mosques a Place for Women

December 9, 2011 - 11:17am, by Dorian Jones

A campaign to make Istanbul’s roughly 3,100 mosques more welcoming for women could set off a gender revolution in Turkey’s places of Islamic worship – and one that may not be uniformly welcomed.

"This is about mosques being a space for women," declared Kadriye Avci Erdemli, Istanbul’s deputy mufti, the city's second most powerful administrator of the Islamic faith. "When a woman enters a mosque, she is entering the house of God and she should experience the same sacred treatment. In front of God, men and women are equal; they have the same rights to practice their religion."

As part of the "Beautification of Mosques for Women” project, Erdemli sent 30 teams to visit all of Istanbul's mosques and report back on the facilities for women. What the teams found was shocking, she claimed. "Many of the mosques have no toilets for women, no place for women to wash before praying,” Erdemli recounted. “Most of the places allocated for women were used as storage places, and those that weren't were usually filthy and freezing cold in winter."

Istanbul’s mosques are now under strict instructions to clean up and provide equal facilities for both men and women by February 2012. But it's not only a push for cleanliness and improved sanitation that is underway. The way mosques are arranged is also being changed, according to Erdemli. "In most mosques, the women's area was divided by a curtain or a wall, and this is not fair,” she elaborated. “They are sacred places and women have the right to take advantage of their spiritual feeling as well.”

Unlike men, women are not required under Islam to attend a mosque; their presence is allowed, but, traditionally, female Muslim believers have prayed more frequently at home. Practices, however, can vary from country to country, and from mosque to mosque. In Istanbul’s mosques, to reflect the beautification project’s goal of equal worship space, “all the curtains and walls are coming down,” Erdemli said. “But segregation will remain; men and children will pray in front of women.”

Starting in late December, inspections will start to check if mosques are complying with instructions. Since the program began in March, Erdemli has addressed over 5,000 of the city's imams and religious staff to explain the theological reason for why mosques are for women as much as they are for men. On the streets of Istanbul, there appears to be broad support for the program among religious women. "Sure, it would be beautiful. It would be much better," said one 30-year-old woman, who gave her name as Münevver. "In some places, the spaces for women are clean, but in others they are filthy."

The Diyanet, the state-run administrative body for Turkey’s mosques, has not only given its complete support to the project, but also provided a theological justification. In November, the head of the Diyanet, Mehmet Gomez, gave an uncompromising speech, in which he acknowledged the problem of misogyny in Islam. “There are some wrong, incomplete, biased interpretations that do not reflect the general principles of our noble religion," Hürriyet Daily News on December 7 reported Gomez as saying.

All are not happy with this gender revolution. "I hope all these increasing efforts are not aimed at removing the obstacles for a woman to come out of her home, and first go out to the mosque, and then to find a job; all by finding legitimacy within [the Islamic] religion," grumbled leading Islamic columnist Ali Bulac on December 3 in the Zaman newspaper.

The column provoked a storm of reaction. The outcry, interestingly, was louder coming from practicing Islamic women than from secular feminists. In her December 6 column for the daily Yeni Safak, Islamic columnist Ozlem Albayrak termed Bulac’s attitude a form of “persecution against women.”

The heated polemic is just the latest example of an important change in Turkish society. Istar Gozaydin, a law professor at Istanbul's Dogus University and an expert on the Diyanet, argues that the rise of a new conservative Islamic middle class on the coattails of the decade-long rule of the Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party has eased both formal and informal restrictions on Islamic women in education and state workplaces. "We see more and more women getting educated in the universities, more women in the workplace,” Gozaydin said. “They've been able to become more visible in society. And they want to be a part of the mosque system as opposed to praying at home."

Although the percentage of women in Turkey’s workplaces and university student bodies may appear relatively low, the figures are trending upward. A 2010 World Bank report on gender equality reported that 30 percent of Turkish women work. According to official data for the same year, women accounted for 44 percent of Turkish university students.

Erdemli has her sights on the Beautification of Mosques for Women project becoming an inspiration for the rest of Turkey. She maintains, though, that its goal is not revolution, but simply bringing the Muslim faith back to its roots. "All we are doing is taking Islam to back before it was corrupted and misinterpreted, when women and men were treated equally,” she said.

And now for a picture of a Turkish mosque.  The Turks got many ideas from the Christian churches in the area.  Their mosques are quite beautiful inside.

THE BLUE MOSQUE, ISTANBUL