Don't get why non-muslims bother to suggest lifestyles to muslims.. As muslims, we are happy as we are! And so I believe are the followers of other religions. Leave them followers alone ! Let peoples of all religions build up their own kingdom. It's up to you whether to conform to the changes of this time or not...

Ercan Eroglu, Istanbul, Turkey

Congratulations to my counrty!
Remember what Hannibal said: "We will either find a way, or make one". I believe we are on the right path to modernize and humanize the Hadith and Islamic tardition. There is no doubt that the Hadiths and the tradition of slam should be resived. What Turks are trying to do is that the religion "Islam" should be decomposed and the rules of Arab tradition and culture must be debuged. It shouldn't be forgotten that Islam was aimed to be universal.

Celine, Ä°stanbul, Turkey

so it means that all the muslims in this world will accept what turk are going to bring in the name of refinement. Why don't Truks go to see Ahmadiyya (www.alislam.org) see what refinement have they brought and are they progressive or not? because in last whole century it has been only them who claim that they have the refined an peaceful interpretation of Actual Islam, an they prove it with their acts as well. Open your eyes people. Open the Windows so that you could see sun.

jawad, luton, uk

To qualify one of the first comments above, "I congratulate Turkey on, what looks like, an honest quest for the truth and to follow the true teachings of Islam rather than the "hand-me-down over generations" Islam."

Contrary to what is alluded to in the 1st coment above, these "hand me down over generations" of Islam, are one of the most fundamental teachings adhered to and developed by Sayyidna Mirza Ghulam Ahmad who claimed to be the reformer of the 14th Century of the Islamic era. The fact that he was the 14th in a long line of reformers in Islam, all of whom followed the "hand me downs" from the generations leading upto the Prophet (pbuh) himself, and were thus divinely appointed as the reformers of their ages.

However, there is a difference in following the traditional method of Islamic learning, as did Sayyidna Mirza Ghulam Ahmad al-Qadiani and following self-made 'pirs' and 'shaykhs' who were given their positions due to their ancestry or their position in villages, etc.

Sirajul Haq Khan, Woodford Green, UK

It is not enough to review the Hadith. The Koran needs to be put under scrutiny and believers need to be taught critical thinking and to deconstruct the fear associated with even questioning whether the content of a book is absolute truth.

J.Simmons, Birmingham,

Interesting discussion!

I congratulate Turkey on, what looks like, an honest quest for the truth and to follow the true teachings of Islam rather than the "hand-me-down over generations" Islam. However, this process of removing the false teachings from the rue teachings of Islam was already instigated by the advent of the Prmoised Mesiah and Mahdi - Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in the 19th Centuary. He said that the time for Jihad with the sword is over and now Muslims must do their Jihad with the pen, i.e. by winning hearts and minds. Islam is a peacful religion that advocates the aquisition of knowledge for both men and women. It is only through this aquisition of knowledge that one can begin to understand God. Islam rejects the doctrine of blind faith and urges believers to learn about God and God's creation in order to find him. I hope Turkey will promot these Islamic values too.

Bilal Bhatti, Torquay, Devon

Islam is already clear enough. And neither Turkey nor any other state needs clarifying already the clearest religion.

Dr Ebrahim KHODADOOST, Ardebil, Iran

Friend of mine, a turk, was told by his arabic tutor that my friend must pray in arabic, "or Allah would not hear his prayers". My friend, a devout Muslim, does not belive that Allah is mono-lingual. He continues to say his prayers in turkish.

To read about the Muslim invaders persecution of the Zorastrians in Persia, you must read Prof. Davar's writings on the subject.

Abdallah, Doha, ,

This is very Islamic; one of the continuing aspects to Islam is that it's a debate. There's nothing like what happened in Christianity, where you at least had religious authority crystallize around an organized church for most of the adherents (there have always been dissidents in Christianity, even before Protestantism) - technically, any religious authority could issue a fatwa condemning or approving anything.

That said, hat's off for the Islamic authorities in Turkey for doing this. Hopefully they can offer an ideological challenge to the accursed Wahhabists.

Brett, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

Why the faith change, surely the traditional Muslims will see it as appeasing the West? Surely, we should encourage them to abandon this religion altogether and instead join us in our post-Enlightenment Darwin-inspired Materialist hedonist paradise?

David, Manchester, England

It is certainly apparent that there are many who wish to live their lives according to the seventh century demands of the Koran. This is much like many fundamentalist groups here in the USA. When fundamentalists attempt to live according to centuries old doctrines, they end up believing that slavery is OK, or that misbehaving children and women must be stoned to death by their peers, for many transgressions that are not even crimes today. However, there is no talking to fanatics, and so the wars go on.

Philip Monroe, Pacific Grove, USA/California

Islam has always been a dynamic way of life that was able to affect the entire known world within 100 years in the 7th Century. The scholars of Islam, based on the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, established schools of Jurisprudence that differed occaisionally in the application of Islamic precepts. The science of hadith was developed to filter out the weak Hadiths and establish a body of Hadith literature that could serve as the basis of islamic law and lifestyle. To want to make "Ijtihad" (religious judgements based on the sources) and filter out cultural practices is not a new phenomenon and can be done within the boundaries of Islamic law. So issues like "honour killing" and "female genital mutilation" that have no basis in Islamic law should be rightfully erased. Scholars have already attempted this.To try to change the sources of Islam is to undermine the very foundation of the religion , itself, and please the "secular world". Sincere Turks should be wary of this.

A. H. Quick, Cape Town, South Africa

I would like to save all those academics some time by making my contribution to the debate. Once upon a time a long long time ago in a far off land poor simple people believed an all powerful man called Tod, who lived above the clouds in paradise would come down and punish the rich for making them poor. Frequently Tod would reveal himself to the chosen few in a vision. The chosen few would usually be ambitious, powerful warmongers. Simple minded idiots who claimed to have been visited by Tod were stoned to death or ignored. The chosen war lord would wage war in the name of Tod. His soldiers, if they died in battle, would gain a place in paradise sitting next to Tod. If they survived the battle a small share of the loot. His reward, great treasures, territory and power over the people. After the battles Tod sat down and dictated a lot of rules that everybody had to obey. Tod was so worn out by all the battles he retired and has not been seen since. The end. What's the problem?

sid, derby,

There are though some points that must remain unchanged in Islam, otherwise the reform will be nothing but a cheat aiming to please Western countries. And this deceiful reform, if it took place, would never bring something positive neither to Turkey nor to the West. You must understand that there are people who would never accept to deform Islam in the name of modernity and the so-called tolerance.

Mass-Udhi Tchavar, Taxervucht, Ageria

S heath.

You say that the arabs did not encourage conversion, because it would reduce taxation. But the taxation encourages conversion! If you are saying- and you are historically correct- that Arab rulers in conquered territories taxed non-Muslims at a higher rate, then can you not understand how this discrimination might provoke people to claim they are Muslims and thusly be taxed at the lower rate?

Ben, NYC, USA,

Didn't all four heavenly religions originate from the Middle East?
What language did Christ speak ?
How about Moses ?
And the last of all prophets, Mohammad ?
What the hell has racism got to do with religions ?
Is it a crime to believe in a religion the language of which is Arabic ?
Is it possible to have religions originally in hundreds of different languages ?
Why despise Islam just because its original language is Arabic ?

WOOZYCHOOZY, Istanbul, Turkey

This is great news. Indeed, Turkey is probably the only Muslim country in which this can happen today: it is a democracy that embraces free speech and thought, it is open to Western influences while retaining a strong Islamic identity, it is stable and prosperous, and the army is there to prevent anything from becoming too extreme. Perhaps best of all, its ruling party bridges conservative Islam and modern capitalist democracy. It is especially important that all Islamic theologians were invited to participate: the project cannot then be claimed to be a one-sided, partisan or liberal venture. This kind of Muslim-initiated rediscovery and reinterpretation of the Islamic scriptures is exactly what Islam needs today--a kind of Renaissance that will hopefully preceed a kind of Reformation. Let's just hope that the religious wars do not follow, as they did in Europe when Christianity followed the same path.

Brandon, Baltimore, USA

Congratulations to the turks.
At last they have started a mission to rid islam of the huge amounts of misinterpretations.
If the study is successful, I dont see why other muslim nations should not adopt its conclusions.
Its a big job and I wish them luck.

SM Hussain, Hyderabad, India

It took christianity the same time to start its reforms, lest anyone forgets.
Aryana
your info is half truth. the burqa is actually persian & not arabian & while women & men did marry at young ages but that number 9 you mentioned is debatable, as many at the times of Mohamed didn't know how old were they exactly.
Islam does not replace or abrogate any other religion, except the paganism that arabs indulged in. As for its widespread by force, that is completely false, The arabs did not encourage conversion simply because it meant their coffers would not be filled with the taxes they collected from non muslims. Your info aryana is rather contorted & tilts toward extremists interpretation.

S heath, Cairo, UK

Indeed its about time Islam realized that we are now in 2008 ! Things do tend to take time but not about 13 centuries. 13 centuries was the time it used to take to think a little.....nowadays ojne has to think quickly.

E. Bee, Toulouse, France

The best one can say is , it's a start !
Turkey is too chauvanistic to make changes over night, any changes will take generations to be effective.
Ataturks changes are still fought & some reversed.

It's not only the Koran it's tradition which gets blamed for the failings in human rights.
Whilst hundreds of men isolate themselves in vast numbers there will always be chauvanism , women are not given freedom & equality seen in democracies, the men are not going to agree they like control.

What & how will the imams say to these changes ? will they ensure the line about Jews & Christians being pigs & apes gets deleted. ? Will they remove the lines about killing the Kuffar ? or will they remove the line saying don't take people of the book as your friends. ?
Will they also give a child the choice of religion ? will they allow Muslims to change religion? by this I mean will all references to Apostacy be removed ?

Most importantly of all, will they remove Martyrdom for killing the Kuffar ?

Maggie Millington, Brittany , France

Islam is an Arabic religion force fed to the middle east through wars and invasions. It's cornerstone is Arabic culture that promotes Arabic language. For almost 1400 years, The Zorestarian people of Iranian culture have rightfully resisted this invading religion. Today, Iran is a hostage to an Islam theocracy that is in urgent need of reformation or expulsion from people's daily lives. Whilst for 2500 years we Iranian respected other cultures and religions, since the Islamic invasion of Iran 1400 years ago, Islam and it's theocratic managers have shown trivial tolerance for other cultures and religions. Islam is considered as the last religion that replaced all other. It's principles are intertwined with Arab culture. Whilst in Persia women were queens and held in high esteem, in Islam they can be married at the age of 9 and their evidence is half a man's. Islam in the middle east was not a freely accepted religion but force fed through wars and invasions.

Aryana, London, UK