“Memri Turkish Media Blog”
(http://www.thememri.blog.org.80/turkey/)
Milliyet: YOK President Defended Islam, Said The Western World Source of Sins and Perversion
Mainstream Turkish daily Milliyet reported today that YOK President Prof. Yusuf Ziya Ozcan in an article he wrote in 1995 said, “There would be far less problems if every Muslim lived according to the rules of Islam”.
In an article titled, “Is Islam a Hindrance to Economic Development?” that he wrote when he was a visiting tutor in the International University of Islam in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Ozcan addressed the Western academicians and wrote, “It is overlooked that when Europe lived in darkness of Middle Ages, Muslims ruled the world. And unlike in Christianity, Islam’s rules have not changed. The fact that Muslim countries are under-developed cannot be attributed to Islam.” He claimed that Islam was misunderstood and said that Muslims should respond to Western academicians by using Koran verses and hadith.
He wrote that if all Muslims lived according to Islamic rules there wouldn’t be these problems. “The history of Muslim nations attests to the fact that when they followed Islamic rules closely they ruled the world in many fields; and they lagged behind when their ties to Islam were loosened. Therefore accusations should be directed at Muslims and their interpretation of Islam rather than to Islam itself. If same logic would be applied to the Western world – which is the source of many sins and perversive modes of behavior – one should accuse Christianity, which would not be the right thing to do”, he wrote.
Most of Professor Ozcan’s academic work was on Islam and Muslims.
（Source: Milliyet, Turkey, 12 December 2007）
