My Normal and Paranormal Adventures in Kazakhstan:

Bukhari’s Ghost Dancing with a Hungry Holy Sunni Goat,
Misogynistic Dogs Barking at Pigs,
Russian Pyrokinesis Burning Holes in Brains and Pockets,
Two Extra Letters Correcting Quranic Bismillah,
Kazaks Eating Almaty’s Apple and Horse Meat…

Edip Yuksel
© 19.org

I have no idea why I was so excited to give a poze with that powerful bird. I did not catch it, nor I trained it. My hosts paid a few thousand Tenge for the honor to hold the eagle or falcon in my hand. (As you notice, I am so ignorant about birds, I cannot even distinguish the eagle from falcon. Any help?

This is my third country report since 2008. In my first report, From Tucson to Changsha, my mission was to discover China educationally, culturally, socially, politically and of course, culinarily. Other than a short visit to an Uygur Mosque, I had no encounters with religious people. In my second report, I shared my experience at Oxford University, Muslim Institute in London, Book Fair and one night in a Turkish jail in Istanbul. During that trip, using my arguments from Manifesto for Islamic Reform, I created a multiple choice test, which I called Theometer or Sectometer, and applied it on my distinguished audience in two countries with remarkable success. Now you are reading this report which you might find as delicious as Almaty’s apple!

Hoping that your mind is not already polluted by that obnoxious Cohen the Borat, let me first give you a paragraph of dull and boring background information about Kazakhstan, which declared its independence from Russia in 1991 becoming a presidential republic. Though its democracy is confused between bureaucracy and autocracy (as the USA’s between corpocracy and oligarchy), we hope that one day it will become a model country for peace, justice and progress. In Kazakhstan, I was told, “men are manly, sheep are nervous and flies are everywhere.” It is the worlds 9th largest country, landlocked, and rich with numerous natural resources. Its population of 17 million comprises of about 70% Kazaks and 20% Russians, and its GDP per capita is about 11,000 dollars.

In March of 2007, an elite group of well-educated and well-connected Kazaks discovered my work, especially the Manifesto for Islamic Reform, which they immediately translated into Russian and distributed it in tens of thousands. Before discovering my work, they had adopted the Salafi version of Sunni religion as the product of intense propaganda by regressive forces from Saudi Arabia, the scourge. For instance, they had destroyed their songs and music paraphernalia and had given up many blessings. This unfortunate experience, however, proves their sincerity and commitment. They were lucky, since Kazakhstan did not block the progressive Internet sites and they had not yet traded their brains for good with the volumes of authentic nonsense called hadith and Sunna. Trashing human brains and deactivating their rational faculties is the ultimate goal of the religious viruses, especially of the Salafi mutation.

The group was the cream of the crop. I had met the leading two members, Aslbek and Aidar, at the home of my Turkish colleague Dr. Caner Taslaman in Istanbul. They were young and restless, curious and humorous, intelligent and knowledgeable, rationalist and monotheist, brave peacemakers and fighters for justice. They were also macho man, according to my standards. They were excited and appreciative of discovering the Message of the Quran, unaltered by fabricated hearsay stories and sectarian jurisprudence. In a short time we became friends, which led me to challenge them to get 1 out of 5 scores in a physical game of power, balance and concentration, which I had mastered while I was in Turkish prisons. They repeated the fate of many young and strong men whom I had challenged: they lost the game, 5 to 0.

The trip lasted about 24 hours from Tucson to Almaty, which has been declared sister cities for a few decades. I was welcomed by Dinmukhamed and Talgat, two young men sent by Aslbek, and taken to an A-Club Hotel, located on a hill in a beautiful section of the city. All streets were lined with rows of trees as well as the median. I have never seen a city as tree-friendly as Almaty. Modern accommodations were combined with fresh air… Everything in the hotel met the Western standards of luxury, except for the bathroom tissues which were coarse and difficult to tear. I could not learn much from their media, since the twenty plus TV channels were broadcast in either Russian or Kazak.

The Intellectual Ambush at Almaty

Front row from left: ???, Osman, Edip, Sophie, Raymond. Back Row from left: Timur, Gökhan, DinMuhammad, Serik (the lawyer)

Aslbek Mussin (30) decided to organize a live debate between me and a Sunni scholar/preacher. He contacted a list of Sunni preachers, including one of the best contemporary Sunni apologists, Zakir Naik. I was told that he was not receiving positive responses to his invitation, which was fully paid by the hosts. However, a popular Sunni imam from the United Kingdom accepted the invitation. He thought that he was going to preach to a Sunni herd, as usual. He was not aware of the exact nature of the event, yet he was treated in the best possible manner. It took him a few days to notice that he did not have a crowd; but a group of critical thinkers, rational monotheists. The exact moment where he realized the real nature of his mission has been recorded on video. My friend Raymond Catton from Canada, whom I first met through Rashad Khalifa in 1988, was our moderator for the first two sessions. Raymond was using the Manifesto for Islamic Reform for his questions. At one point, the Sunni preacher loudly complained about the questions, which were designed as curveballs to expose the manifold contradictions in his Sunni religion.

Several Kazak monotheists acted like Salafi Sunnis and they served him around the clock. Since they were Salafis before, they knew all the relevant jargons and mannerisms. He was allowed to lead the prayers, which he appeared to think was his God-given right because of his black robe and long beard. Anytime the call for prayer was made, he would leap forward and choose himself to lead the prayers. (Those of us who do not mention Muhammad’s name besides God in our Sala prayers did not join him). The audience was instructed by Aslbek to cheer for both sides. It was a bizarre scene: while we were in a hot debate, our audience was like in the refrigerator clapping for both sides in an orchestrated and reserved fashion. Our moderators did even better. For instance, Arnold Mol, our moderator for the last session, roared like a lion when I interrupted our Sunni imam; for a moment, Arnold’s face turned red and declared his authority to cut me off. I was glad that he did, since Abu Eesa would not have any excuse to complain about the Kazak-style intellectual setup: he had the chance to share the teachings and dogmas of his Sunni religion with Muslims in a very friendly and free environment.

Ironically, Sunnis has so far never allowed us to debate with them in their conferences. I wish we were invited by Sunnis to debate with their imams and sheiks. I wish we were set up by them! I do not expect them to pay for my trip, to assign two friendly young men to serve me, or cheer for me so that I would not feel lonely. None of that! A simple invitation, equal opportunity to debate and a promise of not beating us or killing us during the event would be sufficient. My past experience with the Sunnis and Shiite people is just the opposite. For instance, on October 7 of 1989 they kicked me out by force from their conferences in Chicago, when I directed a few questions from my first English book, 19 Questions for Muslim Scholars, to the mullahs they ignorantly call Mawlana (Our Lord). They had sent an invitation to Dr. Rashad Khalifa to attend their conference; not as a speaker, but as an audience. Rashad knew that their intention was to humiliate him. Upon Rashad’s request, I accepted to substitute him at the conference. I flew from Tucson to Chicago to confront the mullahs and their followers. Rashad had printed two hundred copies of a special issue of the Muslim Perspective, addressing the participants of the conference. I had also a draft copy of my upcoming book, 19 Questions for Muslim Scholars. Asking the speaker a loaded question was sufficient for my excommunication. They banned me from entering their conference rooms, and then they tried to get rid of me from the lobby, where I was surrounded by curious youths, mostly ethnic Pakistanis. Later, they sent two big guys to my hotel room to physically hurt me; but God sent an African American Muslim who sneaked me out of the hotel just seconds before they reached me. Since then, I have had numerous similar experiences. One of them is memorable. In November 23 of 2002, I had a live debate on a popular Turkish TV program with Dr. Süleyman Ateş, the former head of Religious Affairs. Towards the end of the debate, which was full of surprises, I made a surprise announcement. I declared that for the first time I would be participating in a public event since my emigration to the USA. I was going to show up at a book fair to meet my readers. It was a decision I made at that moment. The host of the show advised me not to do such a crazy thing, but I did not listen. Upon my arrival at the huge external yard of the Kocatepe Mosque, I was welcomed by dozens of monotheists. Several of them, especially Hamza Gürer, begged me not to enter the inside the courtyard. They had noticed a Sunni gang gathered in front of an Islamist publishing house’s exhibition tables talking about me. They were getting prepared to hurt me. I barely averted their mischief.

When Sunni or Shiite clergymen gain power, they rarely, if ever, allow their sectarian teachings to be challenged by monotheists like me. Though we always open our doors, windows and occasionally our chimneys for them, they rarely allow us in their Internet forums or Paltalk rooms. The moment they realize that we are monotheists, that we do not associate fabricated hadith to the Quran, that we do not praise Muhammad more than God, that we do not accept verses abrogated by hungry holy goats, that we do not believe that music is prohibited and women should be avoided like a dog, and hundreds of other non-Quranic teachings and practices, they insult us, falsely accuse and sensor us. Their leaders have called me Zionist, Bahai, or the member of the Moon Cult who received a million dollars… They are very good in producing many rabbits from their hadith-trained imaginations, and ironically they tend to believe the objective reality of their imaginary rabbits. I hope that Abu Eesa appreciates this great difference between monotheists and polytheists. Rational monotheists have nothing to fear, since they have nothing to hide.

Abu Eesa Niamatullah was a smart, articulate and cordial tall man with very long arms that could hug a camel vertically. He was born in the United Kingdom, of Pakistani heritage. With his Arabized title and first name, black robe, kosher beard and short hair contrary to what his hadith literature describes his fashion idol, he was wearing a strait jacket around his outgoing personality, screaming the troops of contradictions: a former disk-jockey who considered music a sin, a science-educated man who was promoting nonsense, a humorous man who somehow ended up playing the role of a Sunni scholar. Abu Eesa (The Father of Eesa), was a British-educated Pakistani man impersonating the composite Sunni character created by medieval Arab, Persian, and Turkish pagans, Jewish Rabbis and Christian Monks through mishmash stories and norms! Holy concoction! Under the same garb, he was both a mullah and a normal human being. Perhaps we could become close friends if he did not have his second personality, which promoted a cruel, oppressive and repressive religion. But he has hope. As long as he has some sense of humor left in him, as long as he can listen to the opposing voice, he may be able to free himself from the dogma of the master hypnotist. Time will tell.

Like all religious people who follow dogma blindly, he too was convinced that his cloth and grooming was an integral part of his faith. Knowing that faith is a euphemism for wishful thinking or joining a particular bandwagon for petty tribal, social, political and/or economic interests, it was not a surprise to see many of the followers of dogma showing off with their cloth and grooming; a juvenile way of making a point: I am different and holier than you, and I am the center of the universe! I am the missing link between you and heaven! In this regard, Abu Eesa was better than the Catholic priests; at least he did not generate dust and smoke like the Pope with a funny hat who breaks multiple records in Yuksel’s Record of Religious Oddities. (I am working on a new book now. I will rank the top 100 religious oddities according to the amount of logical, natural and internal contradictions they cause.)

Sunni Polytheism Exposed

Raymond was using the Manifesto for Islamic Reform as the blue print for his questions. Towards the middle of the debate, Abu Eesa realized that the Questions were out of ordinary. Well, he got a bit disappointed for receiving so many curved balls. But, our Kazak hosts did not let him feel alone. They cheered every time he spoke something; even though they disagreed with almost everything he said. The Kazaki monotheist muslims' sense of justice and hospitality was incredible: For a few days Abu Eesa thought he had many Salafi friends there

Noticing his talent of smooth-talking and pleasing the crowds, I knew that if I acted softly, brother Abu Eesa would beat around every bush and tree, every pebble and rock, trying his best to window-dress and cover up the devils in the details of Sunni teaching. I applied pressure on him, I provoked him. I had no personal vendetta against him; in fact, I was in admiration of his passion, dedication and zeal. I was tormented by watching him being tormented between his God-given reason and the nonsense he was indoctrinated to follow as a religion. Until the age of 29, I was not much different than him. In other words, I was encountering myself, my ghost from my days of ignorance. I had empathy for him. I knew exactly what my brother Abu Eesa was feeling/thinking, and why he was feeling/thinking that way, and I tried my best to help him to see himself in the mirror. My primary target was not to debase his person but the diabolic teachings he was promoting. I was praying for his freedom. He had chance to accept the truth, so that it could set him free!

At one point, I used the Quranic trap to expose the Sunni polytheism. I read verses 6:145 to 6:150 from the Reformist Translation. I gave a few-seconds pause and looked at him after the challenge: “Bring forth your witnesses who bear witness that God has forbidden this.” Like many whom I had tested before him, he too fell into the Quranic trap. He responded with one of his idols’ names with the usual fabricated phrase: “Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam.” Then, I continued finishing the verse 6:150 and reminded him of the beginning of the section by reading verses 6:112-6:117. This debate was being recorded live in front of the select Kazak audience. Suddenly, he realized that his polytheism was exposed naked. He appeared to have woken up from a nightmare and complained for not hearing anything I had read to him. Ironically, his answer to the question testified to the opposite. Perhaps, his reception of verses was interrupted with troops of hadiths bouncing in his head. He was walking with the help of lightning; he would see the truth surrounding him for a few seconds; but would immediately revert back to the darkness of ignorance. I then reminded him and the audience the verses explaining the phenomenon: when you recite God’s aya to them, they do not hear and do not understand, since there is a wall (Hijab) and curtain between them and God’s message (17:45).

Abu Eesa was trying to prove his monotheistic zeal by criticizing those who visit graves of saints and ask for their help. At one point he reminded us that ONLY God could be Omnipresent and Omniscient, and condemned the practice as idol-worship. Of course, we were all in agreement with him on this. But, I knew for sure, he had no clue what he was talking about. I knew the nature of hadith and sunna, a forest of vertical, horizontal and diagonal contradictions (68:35-38). I knew that he would contradict his own criticism against calling on dead saints and prophets. So, I asked him whether he was commemorating God alone in his Sala prayers in accordance with the Quran (20:14; 72:18; 39:45; 3:18). I asked him whether he was addressing Muhammad in the Tahiyyah just after addressing God when he was reciting al-Fatiha in the standing position. Those who betrayed God and His messenger by associating various sources to the Quran, call on Muhammad while they are in sitting position: “Assalamu alaika ayyuha annabiyyu…” (Peace be upon YOU, O the Prophet…) as if Prophet Muhammad was Omnipresent and Omniscient second person while they pray. At that point, Abu Eesa forgot about his criticism against the worshippers of dead saints and prophets, and declared his polytheistic practice by emphasizing the word AYYUHA, which is a strong indication of the presence of the person. What was his justification for this contradiction? No surprise: HADITH, a word that has been prophetically condemned by the Quran. He used the same justification to continue asking for help from the most popular idol in the world, al-Hajar al-Aswad, the black rock in Mecca. (For details of our arguments against Hadith and Sunna, please see the Manifesto for Islamic Reform. It is published by BrainbowPress and also available online in several languages at www.islamicreform.org).

Abu Eesa could not respond to many fatal criticisms to his Sunni position. For instance, his interpretation of the hadith in which Omar stops a sahaba from bringing pen and paper so that Prophet Muhammad in his death bed could write something to help them not deviate from right path. According to that “authentic hadith,” Omar declared “The prophet is sick and has fever. He does not know what he is saying. Hasbuna Kitab-ulllah (God’s book is sufficient for us)”. According to the same hadith, Omar’s reasoning for stopping Muhammad from writing anything in his death bed was accepted by all the prominent sahaba present there. Abu Eesa’s attempted defense of this hadith missed the entire point. He had also hard time to explain the three different versions of the most important statement in the most witnessed hadith, The Last Sermon, in his “holy hadith books.” According to numerous hadith books, Prophet Muhammad left people (a) The Quran and Sunna; (b) The Quran and his family; or (c) The Quran. Even a rudimentary knowledge of history would be sufficient to know the reason for these discrepancies and the reasons behind the fabrication of the two versions that contradict the Quran.

Women are in the Company of Dogs, not Pigs!

Abu Eesa was a talented demagogue. He was not a “straw man” that I could punch to death and declare a cheap victory. He was one of the best apologists Sunnis could get. During our discussion on women issues, he took the lead in defense of women. He went even further than me and most of the feminists. He declared women to be superior to men. Yes, this Sunni imam was declaring superiority of women over men! One of the signs for the end of the world! Our Sunni imam’s superwoman, however, would not last more than a few seconds. I was not moved by such a hyperbole, since I knew the double talk… If later he were to be interrogated by his misogynist followers, he would defend himself by saying: “I meant mothers; not wives and sisters!” If Abu Eesa were honest about his promotion of hadith and Sunna, than he should have said exactly the opposite about woman. I did not list dozens of hadith from his so-called “authentic hadith books” that discriminate against women, demean, insult, decry, disparage, deprecate, reprehend, reproach, condemn, and accuse women for being the cause of the biggest troubles of ignorant men. I just reminded him of one of his hadiths from his favorite book, Bukhari (I am not misrepresenting his position regarding Bukhari, since he publicly declared that he believed that some hadiths abrogated verses of the Quran):

“What do you think Abu Eesa about this hadith: ‘If a donkey, a pig and a woman passes in front of a praying person, the prayer is nullified.”? After a short pause, our Sunni imam got animated and pointed at my ignorance of his hadith! He proudly corrected my error. I had misquoted his hadith; it was a dog not a pig! If you are a pet-loving American, you may find little problem with such a company. But, his hadith collections condemned dogs, required those touched by a dog to wash themselves seven times in a special way, and instructed the killing of all black dogs… So, there was not much relief for women to be promoted to the level of female dogs, even the white ones. To show off his knowledge of hadith, our imam inadvertently abrogated his own imaginary hadith with a dog. The dog in his hadith books came to life and ate my erroneous pig together with his imaginary Sunni superwoman!

The Extraordinary Powers of Psychokinetic, Telekinetic or Pyrokinetic Energy!

The hoaxer who insulted my intelligence, who poke a little hole in the back of my hand by burning it, and defrauded many of my Kazak friends for more than 10 thousand dollars is staring at me. With mixture of fear and anger. He would apologize one by one for all his mischief and pay back all the money he scammed from my friends. Later I felt compassion for him and gave him a heart-to-heart advice. I kept my word and did not call police on him. I am in ethical dillemma!!

Besides Hadith and Sunna, there was another hoax I had to deal with. I was hearing from my hosts about a Russian guy with paranormal powers. According to many eye-witness testimonies, he was burning holes in things with sheer mental concentration. As a rational monotheist, as a critical thinker, I did not hesitate to reject the claims to be 99.9 percent a hoax. They laughed at me. They had in the past taken extreme skeptics who did not give even a 0.1 percent chance. One of their recent guests was a philosophy professor from Moscow University, who had become a total believer in pyrokinesis. They wanted to take me to a session so that I could witness the paranormal event. I could not pass up the offer.

During the nine days in Almaty, I met three Kazaks who shared the name Serik (from Arabic Sherik, that is Partner or Friend). This Serik was educated in the United States and was a successful businessman and financial advisor. He was in his early thirties. Cool as cucumber. He had two Mercedes cars, one driven by his private driver. He enjoyed trying to scare me by accelerating his new Mercedes G Wagon in Almaty’s narrow streets. The Russian guy lived on the fifth floor of a dilapidated apartment building. The door had multiple locks on it. Upon our entry, he gave an envelope to the Russian who called himself Alexander. Later, I learned that he had popped-up 2,000 dollars for the half-an-hour session. Alexander was a skinny man in his forties. He had a very serious demeanor and all-business attitude. I noticed that before leading me to a chair across from him, he rushed to sit at a chair in front of a little desk with a circular top. He started talking in Russian about his talents of collecting energy from nature and focusing on things he wanted to burn. Serik was a fluent translator and experienced disciple. Alexander was claiming connections with Russian military.

Alexander then produced an inflated little balloon and put it between my right hand and his left hand. I was expecting some kind of laser guns hidden somewhere, but nothing appeared suspicious; he wore a simple shirt with short sleeves. He was talking about the special energy he had that would not pop the balloon. The balloon stayed suspended between his palm and mine for about thirty seconds. He was making low humming noises. I started feeling warmth in the middle of my palm. Then the heat increased and I felt as if there was a ball of fire in my palm. I had to let the balloon fall. It was a very unusual experience. I had in the past studied hypnosis and participated in hypnotic sessions, but this had nothing to do with it. I was not even informed beforehand that I would feel heat inside my palm. But, I was open to every scientific and “normal” explanation before believing that all my lost socks were indeed stolen by Martian visitors. Unfortunately, I knew that for many people Martian thieves were the first explanation for the disappearing socks phenomenon!

I was not paying much attention to what was he telling me through Serik. I was carefully watching like James Randi who had exposed Uri Geller, the notorious Israeli fraudster. Alexander moved to his second show. He opened his hand and let me feel it. It was colder than usual. He then pressed against my right hand palm and started doing the same thing: concentrating and humming. I heard a puff sound and felt a burning pain in the back of my hand between my thumb and index finger. I tried not to overreact. I wanted to take the picture of him, but I respected his wish not to be photographed.

Then, Alexander showed me several plastic cups and placed them on the floor next to my feet. He went all the way into another room which was connected to his office. He sat on a chair about 20 feet away. He started humming and I noticed the plastic cup starting to melt from the side facing him. Within a few seconds he carved a hole in the plastic cup. He did a few similar burnings and poking holes in plastic. Noticing that he was burning and poking holes on the same straight line, I grabbed a cup and put it on the floor at another location and asked him to burn it there. He grabbed it and located it somewhere else in an animated fashion and rapid talking. He made me sit on another chair and from behind started concentrating on the cup. He excitedly claimed that he burned it by sending his energy through my eyeglasses or eyes. I then took a dollar bill from my wallet and put it on his desk and asked him to burn a hole in it. He put it inside his palm and pointed his right hand’s index finger accompanied with exaggerated concentration and bragging words about his powers. He did poke a little whole in the American dollar that had already been turned to a doughnut by the “robber banks”, Wall Street and corporate thieves who stole billions of taxpayers dollars during their recent major heist in American history.

I asked Alexander a few questions about the source of his powers. He talked about his veins, about a special diet of 400 gram of vegetables and 40 gram of nuts, about earth, water, fire, air and ether. Long live Empedocles! I had already witnessed so many red flags that when he started to diagnose my potential health problems and missing the ones I already had, I tried my best to endure his insults to my intelligence. I also wondered about his knowledge about the Randy Foundation, which has been offering 1 million dollars for anyone that could prove paranormal powers. I asked him to go there and claim the money. He made up an excuse: he had a contract with the military for four more months and he would not be able to go out during this period. When I left his office, I was impressed by his talents and showmanship, yet I was sure that he was using some devices to create the burning effect. I suspected two things: laser engravers and chemicals that could have a delayed burning reaction.

The following day, I asked Serik to take me there so that I expose the hoax. I also decided to record my encounter with the fraudster. To make my job easy, Serik arranged this session with Alexander for Aidar, the journalist. At the door, I entered his office with a camcorder. I demanded him to apologize for three things: for insulting my intelligence, for burning my hand and for defrauding thousands of dollars from my friends. I added that he had to give back all the money he received from them. He appeared to be composed and cool. Serik was doing very well in translating our conversation. At a point, I grabbed a plastic cup and put it by the entrance door and challenged him to perform his powers there. He accepted with a condition: he would do it only with the presence of Aidar, the new “recruit.” I had no choice but to accept since I had no clear idea what his trick was about and the two of my friends were not sure about my allegations. Serik and I got out and he locked the door behind us. Taking advantage of this period, I decided to climb to the attic from the opening. I climbed the metal stairs on the wall and pushed the square door all the way pulling myself to the attic. It was dark and dirty. I looked for wires and vertically installed laser engravers in the ceiling of his office room. I was disappointed, nothing was there. I came down and asked Serik to call Aidar and learn what was going on. We had to wait a few more minutes. When the door opened I entered, Aidar put his arms on my shoulder with his head down, “Let’s get out of here; he is real. I am hundred percent sure, he is genuine.” I could not believe my eyes and ears. Aidar appeared pale and shaken. He was very scared. There was big hole on his nylon windbreaker on the right side of his chest. He had not responded to my challenge by poking hole in the cup by the door. Instead, he had chosen to have a new recruit. He had chosen offence. I asked Aidar whether he was injected with some kind of medication. I could not explain his betrayal of me through normal circumstances.

Alexander was now working on Serik, perhaps his best disciple. I had to interrupt. I searched under the desk. I saw sticky stuff under it. I thought they were the secret chemicals he was using; but they were most likely gum pieces as he claimed. Then, I opened the little door under the desk. There I noticed a pedal, exactly as I had predicted. When Serik and Aidar saw it, they were shocked. But, this would not last long. Alexander pointed at a little camera on the corner of the wall and claimed that the pedal is for the camera; he was recording the sessions secretly. I did not buy his explanation. I immediately jumped over the seat by the wall and pulled off the device that looked like a small camera. I suspected it to be a laser, disguised inside a camera cover. But, after a brief inspection I was disappointed in myself. I was wrong in my accusation; indeed it was a camera. But, I was still not convinced that the pedal was for the camera. I suspected a clever cover up. If someone discovered the pedal, then Alexander has a convincing explanation for it. I had promised Aslbek and others that I would surely expose the hoax and now I was nowhere near close to it. The attic had not produced any clue, nor the pedal hidden under his desk. Meanwhile, I noticed that I was losing Serik too. He did not have much faith in my claims to start with. And now, after two failures, he had perhaps no faith at all. I felt the urge to discover the devises the scam artist was surreptitiously utilizing.

I sat down on the chair and held the balloon in my hand and challenged him to do his trick right there. He appeared to accept my challenge. But after a brief moment of concentration, he started telling Serik that he had accumulated too much energy and could blow my hand off. I did not swallow his bluff. I challenged him to blow my hand off and while at it he should also blow my head off. I started timing him, using my watch. I told him that he had only five minutes to unveil his tricks and apologize for his three crimes; otherwise I would call the American embassy and ask them to send police here to ransack his office. He was not giving up. He was trying to influence Serik to ask me to give up. I would not. I informed him about the few minutes left for him to avoid the police.

When the five minutes finished I asked Serik to call the US embassy. I was going to tell them that a Russian scam artist had attempted to defraud me, an American citizen, and I needed police to come to the address. Serik did not respond to me. Losing both of my comrades and my patience, I decided to use some force. I charged the desk which was attached to the floor. I kicked it hard, breaking the jar and spreading some knickknacks to the floor. From the bottom of the table, a bundle of white cables were exposed. They were curving back to the bedroom. Following the lead of the wires, I went to the bedroom across. At that point I heard Serik telling me that he confessed his trick. He was using chemicals. I knew that he was still trying to hide his real trick. So, I continued my search. Behind the bed there was a section covered with blankets. When I removed the blankets, an electronic devise enclosed in two big boxes was exposed. My friends were in shock. They never expected such a professional set up. The devices, according to Alexander, were generating microwaves. He also mentioned using chemicals in combination. I did not pay much attention to his explanations, since I never trusted him. I am not yet sure exactly how it worked, perhaps he was filling the room with microwaves which would activate the chemical that he would secretly attach to things. Perhaps he was sticking the chemical to the back of our hands with his thump when he was shaking our hands. In fact, the location where he burned our hands was exactly corresponding to where the tip of his thump would land. But how could he manage to delay the burning of the back of my hand when he directed heat to my palm? Why he was not able to produce the same effect when I challenged him in different locations? Perhaps, he would not have chance to obtain extra chemicals and attach it under scrutiny. I am not sure. Considering all the locations that he performed his tricks, they were on a straight line across his bed room. Regardless of the details, it was now clear that he was using a high tech device to create the burning effect on his subjects.

I recorded his apology. He apologized for insulting the intelligence of a philosopher, for burning my hand and for defrauding my friends. Later I felt compassion for him and gave him a heart-to-heart advice. I kept my word and did not call police on him. Serik took the envelope containing several thousand dollars. Then, he asked for all the money previously paid by him and his friends. The scam artist told us that he was stashing his money somewhere else. Serik’s chauffeur took them; he retrieved about ten thousands dollars.

Two days later, Aslbek wanted Abu Eesa to experience the same show. He was curious about his reaction. I went with Abu Eesa pretending being there for the first time. We recorded his experience and reaction. He was acting like a scientist, but a gullible and confused one. He appeared to trust every word of explanation given by Alexander. Alexander was using natural terminology to explain his powers, but he was also mixing the word spirit with them. Abu Eesa was eager to explain his powers with jinns or ghosts. So, he was trying to hear more about the spirit part. I asked Abu Eesa a few short questions so that he could elaborate on his jinni theory. I reminded him about the paintings containing Christian figures and symbols. He was convinced that it was jinni power. Before leaving, Abu Eesa advised Alexander to read the Quran. It was refreshing to hear Abu Eesa promoting the Quran. I could not stop myself interjecting: “Brother Abu Eesa, you are peddling Bukhari to us, but I see that you are advising the Quran to outsiders. Why don’t you ask him to read Bukhari?” I am sure, Abu Eesa knew that no sound person would accept Islam by starting from Bukhari. None would have any respect or sympathy for the fictional Muhammad depicted by Bukhari. For converts, Bukhari would be inserted into the scene afterwards; to gradually distort the message of the Quran! In other words, hadith would be introduced in a fashion to induce the effect known “the boiled frog syndrome”. (I have been receiving numerous letters from converts complaining about this “bait and switch” method. Dr. Maurice Bucaille was one of the vocal modern tactic of this sophisticated scam of Sunni apologists.)

In Order to Blind Himself to Code 19, the Sunni Imam adds Two More Letters to Bismillah!

The following day, I was asked to give a lecture on Code 19 to a small group of mathematicians and philosophers. I had little time and on top of that the translation slowed me down. I made a philosophical introduction and presented the tip of the iceberg. One of the philosophers, Beket Nurzhanov, invoked Pythagoras’s name and dismissed my presentation as numerology. I knew Pythagoras very well and I very much liked him. But, I knew that code 19 was based on a verifiable and falsifiable physical facts and had little to do with Pythagorean esoteric number mysticism.

Hearing that he had company among our distinguished guests, our imam, Ebu Eesa got a second wind. He declared that the frequency of the word Month in the Quran was not 12, and the frequency of the word Day was not 365 as I presented. He obviously had no clue about what he was talking. I wished that we had more time to discuss this issue face to face; but we did not have time. The imam added one more refutation: the number of the letters in the Bismillah (Basmala) was not 19 either; it had 21 letters. He also claimed that he could come up with similar numerical patterns by using the Kazakhstan constitution. I was glad to hear such a concrete statement and I challenged him to do so in three or four months. Later I changed my mind regarding the Kazakh constitution since it is not in the Latin alphabet and he could easily tamper with its letters as he did with the most popular verse of the Quran. So, I challenged him to produce similar patterns from the Constitution of the United States.

Abu Eesa demanded more time and the stage to spew his aversion against the number 19, prophesized in chapter 74 of the Quran as one of the greatest divine signs. I gave him the marker, the board and asked him to show the extra two letters in Bismillah that I had missed! I was glad that the session was recorded by a professional so that the world would witness the kind of ignorance and arrogance the enemies of the prophetic sign have. Interestingly, the former head of the religious affairs in Turkey too had made exactly the same absurd claim in front of millions in a live debate with me, which is now available on the internet. It is such an absurd claim since the number of letters in Bismillah is no secret and it does not require the knowledge of hadith and so-called (pseudo)science of hadith to know it. Any student in an elementary school in Arabic speaking countries could easily count its 19 letters. In fact, not a single Sunni or Shiite scholar who happened to mention the number of letters in Bismillah contradicted that simple fact. For instance, famous Molla Jami starts his divan by referring to the 19 letters of Bismillah. Abu Layth Samarqandi in his Quran interpretation refers to a hadith about the three (not four!) letters of its first word, Bism. Fakhr al-Din al-Razi in his impressive interpretation of the Quran, Tafsir al-Kabir, refers to an interesting connection made between the 19 letters of Bismillah and the guardians of hell, claiming that each letter protects from their harms. Al-Qurtubi in his Al-Jami’ li Ahkam il-Quran, reports hadith about 19 letters of Bismillah. Similarly, the Kurdish Sunni scholar Said Nursi too refers to that simple fact numerous times. Furthermore, millions of Pakistani and Hindu Muslims have the tradition of using 786, the numerical value of the 19 letters, for Bismillah. In sum, our imam neither could verify the simple facts nor was he aware of his own sources.

After the discovery of the code 19 and the fulfillment of its prophecies mentioned in chapter 74, Muslim scholars started adding letters to the most repeated verse of the Quran, BiSMi ALLaH AL-RaHMaN AL-RaHYM. As usual, they could not agree about the number of letters they were hallucinating. Some claimed that it had 21 letters and some claimed 22. Our Pakistani-British imam was hallucinating 21 letters. However, during the few seconds it took him to reach the white board with the marker in his hand, he changed his mind. Instead of adding two alifs as he claimed while sitting in his chair, somehow he did just the opposite. He deleted three alifs from Bismillah and uttered a few nonsensical claims regarding the ease of coming up with a numerical structure based on its 16 letters! Of course, he did not come up with a single example, except his utter confusion by first claiming two extra alifs in Basmala and then when challenged, this time deleting three alifs from it! He managed to do both in less than a minute! I should not have expected a better criticism from someone who considered Bukhari a holy book, believed the authority of holy hungry goats in shaping his sharia law, and believed that some hadith reports abrogated the verses of the Quran.

At one point during one of the debates, Imam Abu Eesa made a negative remark regarding the www.19.org logo followed by a question mark on my T-shirt. He called it a “cult.” I asked him to define “cult” and then check whether I were a cult member. Upon my rebuke and invitation to substantiate his accusation, he gave up. Later, Hasan Mahmud came up with a great line of defense: “No cult would put a question mark under their logo”

The Derrida-loving Philosopher Joins the Sunni Imam in an Imaginary Universe!

While talking against code 19, our imam cleverly reminded the audience his agreement with the great doctor in the room who dismissed the code 19 as a modern version of Pythagorean numerology. He was in complete agreement with Professor Beket Nurzhanov, Head of the Department of History of Philosophy of the Kazakhstan National University named after Al Farabi. Beket was well-groomed and knew how to speak English. His appearance, age and title demanded respect. A few minutes later when the session ended with a tea break, I joined him.

While sipping from my cup of tea, I wondered about Beket’s mind and I asked him about his philosophy. He listed the names of his favorite philosophers. Derrida was among them and it was enough for me to get some idea about his modus operandi. I did not find any common philosopher, except for Nietzsche, among our favorites list. I liked Socrates, Leibniz, Wittgenstein, Hume, among many others. I questioned this Derrida-loving professor about the reason of his dismissal of my presentation, without even bothering to study it. He told me this, “According to a mathematician, there could be another universe where 2+2 could be making 3 or 5.” Yes, read it again if you wish, without spilling your cup of tea.

I did not ask him the identity of that mathematician. Honestly, I did not care about such a nerd. Our doctor, who dismissed the code 19, was the worst of all relativists. He doubted the reliability of universal mathematical statements. As a constant seeker of truth and servant of the Truth, I could not try to appease his ego or feelings. I had to tell him what he needed to hear: “According to your mathematician, dear professor, these words coming from your mouth too could be nonsense in another universe.” I noticed surprise in his face. I corrected myself. “In fact, I do not need to trust your extraterrestrial mathematician. Forget about another universe, your words are nonsense in many languages and countries of this very little planet!” I meant both meanings of the “nonsense”! He was relying on arbitrary human language to deny universal language of the universe.

When the issue became the divine sign in mathematics, our professor was leaving the mathematics of his universe which he relied on without doubt when he counted his money, his children, his socks and fingers. In order to blind himself to one of the greatest signs and reject the most profound facts of this universe, he was seeking refuge in a mathematician from another universe. He was switching universes. At that moment, I felt pity for his students and remembered the Quranic verse 7:146.

By now, you might think that my adventure with Abu Eesa and Beket was the normal one. Honestly, I think my adventure with them was the real paranormal one. The scam that the Russian guy was performing had nothing to do with paranormal; it was based on perfect science and technology. The real paranormal, the real odd events were performed by these two gifted and highly educated individuals. The first had no problem in believing a hungry holy goat abrogating verses from his holy book, thinking that he could value women by equating them to dogs and donkeys, could add letters to Bismillah, and many more religious nonsense, while the second one, seeking refuge in an imaginary universe to blind himself to one of the greatest divine signs. These were the real paranormal beings and events, and you can see their clones everywhere on this planet.

Back to Normal

If you do not know it yet, learn: Almaty is the original place of all apples in the world. The apples were perfect fit for my taste buds: sweet and sour

Aside from confronting theological and scientific hoaxes, among the many memories that I will remember for a long time is my experience in a Russian sauna which, reportedly, had the temperature up to 80 degrees Celsius. For the first time I ate horse meat and drank horse milk (kımız), which was the most disgusting thing after the Durian fruit I had tasted in China a year before. Again, for the first time, I saw young Kazaks juggling not one but two dual cell phones, each phone having two phone numbers. By the way, 2×2=4 phone numbers in our universe!

Tufan Karadere of Turkey, Hassan Mahmoud of Canada, Sophy and Ray Catton of Canada, Abu Eesa of U.K., Arnold Mol of Neatherlands, and sitting Talghat. During one of our debates, Imam Abu Eesa made a negative remark regarding the http://19.org logo on my T-shirt. He called it a "cult." Later, Hasan Mahmud came up with one of the best "sound-bites": "No cult would put a question mark under their logo"

There I had a great time with Ray Catton, his wife Sophia, and Hasan Mahmud who all joined us from Canada. Tufan Karadere and Gökhan Aycan from Turkey, and Arnold Mol from Holland contributed to the conference with fresh voices and pleasant conversations. I was impressed by Hasan Mahmud who is an activist serving in Muslim Canadian Congress as its Director of Sharia Law since last six years. He was well prepared to expose the so-called Sharia Law. A half-an-hour interview with him by Raymond was recorded, and inshallah it will soon be available on the Internet together with other video recordings.

Unfortunately, several other invitees could not make it there. For instance, Mohammed Jaseer of India had to return from Dubai airport because of miscommunication regarding visa. My colleague Layth al Shaiban planned to join us, but could not make it.

During my brief visit to Almaty, I met many bright Kazaks and enjoyed their company. Aslbek Musin (maverick), Serik Kushenov (entrepreneur) , Yerlan Salmenov (entrepreneur), Aidar Kaipov (journalist), Serik Ryszhanov (thinker/researcher), Serik Kupeishin (lawyer), Damir Almarekov, Berik, DinMukhamed (dusinessman), Abu Walid Khamdi (dentist), Murtaza İzcilik (accountant), Timur, Talgat (lawyer), Ismail, and many others will inshallah be the pioneers in promoting Islamic Reform in Kazakhstan, the surrounding countries and the world. We ended the conference with an evaluation and some decisions, which included the following:

1. Redesign the 19.org and turn it to a multilingual hub of communication and cooperation for monotheists around the world.
2. Start weekly Quranic studies at homes.
3. Include women in philosophical, educational, cultural and social activities. Without women’s participation an Islamic reform is not possible.
4. Translate some books into Russian, including the introduction and endnotes of the Reformist Translation of the Quran and the upcoming book, Nineteen: God’s Signature in Nature and Scripture.
5. Promote critical and creative thinking among secondary school students, and campaign to include critical thinking courses in public school curriculum.
6. Establish a club or foundation to promote culture of innovation through competition among young inventors.
7. Considering the importance of comparative advantage in global economy, focus on a few technologies with great potentials and attract the best minds from around the world to do research on them.
8. Avoid the extravagant life-style and addiction with consumption; focus on charity.
9. Fight corruption and lead Kazakhstan to be a role model for the so-called Muslim world.
10. Without compromising individual freedoms and idiosyncrasies, establish a strong network and cooperation among monotheists.
11. To promote rational monotheism, peace, justice and progress, facilitate global projects and organize the next conference either in London or Istanbul.

Let me finish this report with a remark made by Serik Kushenov in a fancy restaurant in Almaty. When I complained about a fly hovering over our table and bragged about American restaurants having no flies, Serik swatted with a big smile: “We have flies here because our food is natural and organic” Well, I found people of the Kazakhstan as natural and organic! J

To see the pictures of our conference in Almaty, you may visit my Picassa at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/edipyuksel

To watch the video recordings of our debates, you may visit the following links:

Ooops… Not ready yet.

Edip’s Semi-personal Report
on Conferences and Events in United Kingdom, Poland and Netherlands, in 2010

Note 1: I am looking forward receiving your articles for the anthology, Critical Thinkers for Islamic Reform, Oxford 2010. Please send it in Word document.  You may also add your short comments, observations, experience regarding the conference. If you had already done so, please do so again, since finding them in my extremely busy email box will be time consuming. We would also like to a have short bio of you, about 100 words.

Note 2: Arnold will inshallah post the video recordings of panels soon.  Pictures from the Conference and my European tour are posted at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/edipyuksel

On June 12, an email from my older son Yahya to his mom highlighted a first for our family: “Hey I’m in Morelia right now, a really big city with a lot of culture. I’m taking pictures and just got you guys some cool things. Is this the first time we have all been split into separate parts of the world? Matine is in China, baba in England, you in the USA and me in MEXICO arrrrreeeebbbbaaaa!”

I was at Oxford University for the second conference of Critical Thinkers for Islamic Reform, June 11-13. The Oxford conference was very successful by bringing many leading critical thinkers from around the world together. The outcome for islamic reform movement will be substantial; such as, increased networking and cooperation, clarification of some theological and political issues, academic and media projects, and hopefully a conference in Mecca or Jerusalem in year 2014.

After the conference, I would be visiting London, Germany, Poland, Holland, for a series of lectures, meetings and activities. I was excited for all, yet anxious at Oxford.

I would like to start with Professor Abdullah an-Naim’s letter. An important figure in modern Islamic Reform movement, brother Abdullah could not participate in our second conference. He was the co-organizer of the first conference in Atlanta two years ago. Inshallah he will submit a paper for the anthology and join us in our next conference. He sent the following message.

Dear participants

I regret that I am unable to join you due to date conflict with another commitment (University of Norte Dame) in the USA. I am grateful for the opportunity to convey my best wishes for a successful conference and the work that follows from it. The theme of our Atlanta conference was “celebration of heresy”, to emphasize the fundamental value of permanent and profound differences among human beings. But I am sure that we all also appreciate, however, human beings tend to overlook the value of the opposing view when in the company of like-thinking people.

So, please let us all live up to the theme of our first conference, and take its message further – the more different another point of view, the more we need to remind ourselves of its value, because we are likely to forget

With warm regards

Abdullah Ahmed An-Na’im

For the record, I would like to quote some excerpts from the announcement of the conference:

This year the conference of Critical Thinkers for Islamic Reform – the Way Forward will be held at Oxford University in June 11-13, God willing. The participants are individuals who agree on the imperative of a drastic reformation in the Muslim world. Though each of us are independent thinkers, we are all in agreement regarding the urgency of  reforming our theology, attitude, action and our organizational strategies to further align ourselves to the Quran interpreted in light of reason.

We have successfully organized a conference in Atlanta, USA in  2008 where thinkers and scholars from both the East and West came together in an effort towards instigating a reform to promote monotheism, peace, justice, progress, critical thinking, and freedom in the Muslim world.

OBJECTIVES: The conferences have multiple objectives. Among these are:

• Facilitate opportunity for reformist Muslim leaders to meet each other personally and exchange ideas.
• Diagnose the theological, cultural and political problems leading the degeneration and decline of Muslim civilization.
• Critically analyze political, cultural, economic, psychological conditions of Muslim individuals and societies and their interaction with other groups.
• Discuss the geopolitical strategies implemented by the World’s leading powers and their overt and covert operations in the so-called Muslim lands.
• Suggest solutions and develop short and long term projects to bring about a progressive reform in both personal and social realm.
• Pick a country or two for implementation of specific projects to address the issues.

FUNDING

We expect every participant pay for their own expenses. In fact, we are glad that we are not supported by any government or king, by any religious organization or cult. We are independent activists with sense of duty who are rising to the occasion of our own volition.

Though our brothers and sisters at Oxford will try their best to open their homes to provide boarding for some guests; we will inshallah strike a deal with a hotel nearby conference site to get discount for the participants. To cover the direct conference costs (hiring of facilities, all meals and refreshments, publicity and incidentals); we believe that £50 GBP per person is a fair and realistic price for this important three-day conference. A few brothers and sisters already promised contribution to subsidize the conference. If sufficient funds are raised then a fee for registration may not be charged at all.

Since we would like to keep everything transparent, we will not accept any contribution that is not announced publicly. The registration site will have a section for contribution.

Aslbek Musin contributed 6,000 dollars. Fereydoun Taslimi contributed more than a thousand dollars, Caner Taslaman, El-Mehdi Haddou, and Brainbow Press, each contributed 500 dollars. Helen and Hussein Sandouga each contributed one hundred dollars. Most of the money was used for travel costs and renting the conference rooms.

I stayed at Barcelo Hotel, where I met Helen and Hussein Sandouga and their daughters. Later, Layth, Fereydoun, and a few others joined us. Helen and Hussein came all the way from Canada to meet their monotheist brothers and sisters. It was refreshing to meet these committed muslims for peace and justice.

With the exception of an incident during opening of the conference Friday afternoon, and another incident where the same person tried to change the poster of the conference, the conference was fine. Many diverse ideas were discussed in a civilized manner. The diversity and the quality of ideas and discussions was an anomaly, especially for a conference on the intersection of philosophy, religion, law and politics. Participants felt perfectly comfortable to express themselves, without fear of censorship or fatwa for chopping their head. They all had discovered the boundary of freedom of expression which was described by US Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in a picturesque maxim: “The right to swing my fist ends where the other man’s nose begins.”

Tolerance and acceptance of other’s freedom to choose his or her own theological position, as Fereydoun put it, “a person’s fundamental right to go to Hell,” was the conventional norm. For instance, the suggestion of using the pronoun She for Allah by Amina Wadud did not seem to shock the audience. Many of those who considered it pure nonsense did not even react to it. They followed the divine instruction: “They are the ones who examine all words, then follow the best. These are the ones whom GOD has guided; these are the ones who possess intelligence.” (39:18).

The official poster of the Conference was designed by the graphic designer of BrainbowPress, which displayed the word ALLAH surrounded by 114 pages/petals representing attributes of God mentioned in the Quran, the total number of chapters in the Quran, or the number of all element in the universe. During the conference, a pathological character hanged another poster in the room, which displayed Muhammad’s name next to God, fulfilling the prophetic statement in 39:45 and many other.

I would like to share with you some of my observations on panelists and a few participants. Since we will publish their presentation in the next volume of the anthology, Critical Thinkers for Islamic Reform, Oxford 2010, I will just provide some basic observations about their person and work.

Adis Duderija, a vertically gifted Bosnian scholar who traveled all the way from Australia, gave a scholarly lecture on the methodology of interpreting the Quran. His talk extended to the break time and I was informed that the coffee and tea were getting cold and would be wasted. I wanted to cut the talk and let him finish it in a few minutes before the next panel. Ignoring the complaint of the co-organizer who was dictatorial, I decided to have a democratic vote and asked the audience about their preference. The majority preferred to stay until Adis finished his lecture, which I thought was taxing the attention of the audience. I was wrong. I had underestimated the endurance and interest of the audience.

Amina Wadud had cancelled her travel, yet she appeared on Skype and discussed the issues related to the never-ending tension between genders. I was angry and disappointed in Amina for her cancellation of the trip, which wasted our limited financial resources. On the other hand, I was glad that she appeared on the big screen and shared her controversial and provocative ideas with the audience. Though I consider her acceptance of hadith as the second source of the system of islam (peace) to be a flagrant contradiction with her feminist position which goes beyond what I stand for, I admire her courage to speak up her mind without fear.

Arnold Yasin Mol, the founder of Deen Research Center, was the most frequent panelist and moderator. I had assigned him to two panels, yet he was filling every vacuum. This hyperactive young Dutchman with a thrilling and numbing past is like a walking and talking Encyclopedia of Islam. Once I communicated to him my concern about his ability to digest properly all the books he has been devouring. He has unlimited curiosity and extraordinary memory to satisfy it. With all the blessings comes greater responsibility. Excluding Arnold’s occasional use of street language, which is reminiscent of his past, Arnold is fluent and has rich lexicon in English and Dutch, and he shows interest in learning Arabic. I will continue work with Arnold whom I believe will contribute greatly to the islamic reform movement.

Asghar Ali Engineer, a scientist from India, was another participant whose presence was enlightening. He was exceptionally calm and talked with wisdom. Unfortunately, he was hosted in London, rather than Oxford. He was hosted by Iftikhar Ahmad who generously allocated one of his houses in London to host minimum five panelists. Upon learning that Asghar was traveling for hours to join us at Oxford, I wanted to move him to a nearby hotel. But, since he had left his bag in London it did not work. Brother Asghar occasionally took short naps while listening to the panelists. I felt guilty for allowing him to commute back and forth to London, but it was too late to correct the mistake. So, I had all the empathy for his need to take short naps. I considered his naps as a borometer, that is, measuring the boredom level of a speaker. We will inshallah keep in touch with him and his organization.

Aslbek Musin, together with Serik Kushenov, joined us from Kazakhstan. Serik is an accomplished economist and a great friend. I had unforgettable memories with him during my visit to Kazakhstan. Aslbek is a Young Turk who has great ambitions to change the world he lives in. He contacted me several years ago and was very excited to discover the Manifesto for Islamic Reform. Then, he gathered a small conference in Almaty. I shared my experience and adventure there in a report with a yard-long title: My Normal and Paranormal Adventures in Kazakhstan: Bukhari’s Ghost Dancing with a Hungry Holy Sunni Goat, Misogynistic Dogs Barking at Pigs, Russian Pyrokinesis Burning Holes in Brains and Pockets, Two Extra Letters Correcting Quranic Bismillah, Kazaks Eating Almaty’s Apple and Horse Meat…Aslbek was restless and joined us for a different mission. He was not much interested in passively listening or actively talking. In fact, while he was on the panel, before his turn came, he quietly left his seat and disappeared! Like Arnold, Aslbek too is multitalented and has big dreams. I know that he is an articulate speaker and he is knowledgeable, yet he was there for action. He was interviewing some people for a documentary film on the mathematical structure of the Quran. While, the panelists were talking he was gently pulling some audience to the nearby room for video interviews. I think you will hear more about Aslbek and his projects in the future. Inshallah, by the age of maturity, Aslbek will have substantial contribution to the global peace, justice and progress, starting from his country.

Aziz Shaikh and Imran Goondiwala came from South Africa. They have a growing muslim community (not Sunni nor Shiite, but muslim) in South Africa. Several months ago they invited me to their conference. As much as I wanted to join them, my schedule did not allow. I recommended them to invite Prof. Aisha Musa, which they did. I found both Aziz and Imran to be genuine monotheists and to be independent thinkers. Both are passionate activists who are committed to promote the message of peace and reason in South Africa and beyond. You may learn more about their activities at: www.alburhaanquran.net

Caner Taslaman, whom I know for about thirty years, was already there. He was at Oxford University as a visiting scholar. Caner, a leading figure in modern islamic reform movement, is one of the rare breeds of intellectuals; he is blessed with the mind of a scientist and spirit of a dedicated activist. He has received two PhDs, in theology and politics. He has authored a comprehensive book masterfully promoting the message of the Quran, exposing the problems with Hadith, Sunna and various Sects. He has also authored a comprehensive book on the scientific aspect of the Quran, and philosophical books such as The Big Bang, Philosophy and God, or The Quantum Physics, Philosophy and God. He has numerous websites, such as, quranmiracles.org and quranic.org. The Turkish Facebook pages of his organization, Kuran Araştırmaları Platformu has thousands of fans. Caner is not fluent in English and thus he was not much appreciated by the audience. He is a gifted debater and he demonstrated his rhetorical skills during a recent debate on the philosophical implication of CERN experiments. The debate was broadcasted by a Turkish TV Channel, NTV. (See: http://vimeo.com/11024365 ) The atheist scientist Cihan Saçlıoğlu could not endure Caner’s first scientific punch and had to leave the studio within the first twelve minutes. It was a clear knock-out.

During my three day stay at Oxford, Caner and his friend invited me twice to Bodrum, a restaurant run by a Turkish immigrant, Resul. There I enjoyed delicious Turkish dishes and desserts. At one point we talked about my plan to organize Haj in 2014. One shared some of his memories there. Turkish visitors, according to him, were leaders in adding more innovations to the rituals already polluted by polytheism. For instance, after worshiping the walls of the Kaba, they would get out backwards. Some Turkish women would hold on the expensive black cover of the Kaba and would secretly cut a piece from it as a holy souvenir. Turkish pilgrims would fill sacks with the rocks they collected at Arafat. If Saudis do not wake up and ban such a practice, soon Arafat will be free of any pebbles to stone people to death or their Satan. The fabricated ritual of stoning the Satan, with such creative visitors is upgraded once a while. Satan, according to my friend, would receive shoes and sandals besides rocks.

Farouk A. Peru is a Malaysian native who is working on his doctorate degree in London. He is one of the most amiable and trustworthy person I have ever worked with. I worked with him as co-editor of the Critical Thinkers anthology. He is very humble and dedicated comrade. Though he is an independent thinker, he is at the same time a great team player. He is a shining scholar.

Fereydoun Taslimi, an Iranian businessman and philanthropist living in the United States, was one of the most provocative speakers. I know him since 1988. When I first met him in Tucson, he was holding The Skeptic magazine in his hand, which earned my respect. To the question, “What is your purpose in participating this conference,” he managed to say, “To attack Muslims,” which made him the candidate for the title of “extremist” by a participant. Personally, I do strongly criticize the Muslim world for the troubles we have been afflicted, and I also criticize the Western world for taking advantage of the backwardness of the Muslim countries and using them as excuse to erect puppet regimes, to invade, commit atrocities, plunder and rape their natural resources. I do not think that we should ignore one or the other. Both problems need to be acknowledged and addressed. Realism and justice requires such a holistic approach. Fereydoun’s contribution to the reform movement is important, since he raises some good points that keep us alert against group-think. Besides, Fereydoun is not just a talker, he is also a doer; his foundation has donated numerous computers to the education of students in developing countries and he has sponsored teams of students from Iran to participate in international competitions in robotics, etc.

Gershom Qiprisci, a Qaraite leader who has offices in both Israel and Netherlands, has been in touch with me since 2007. I was happy to find Gershom to be unlike of a stereotypical presumptuous clergyman. He had a sense of humor and he had desire to highlight the common points between Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In his speech he talked about the need for topical study of three Abrahamaic religions and suggested a short list of methodology to follow: Aql (Reason), Tawhid (Unity), and Adl (Justice). After the conference, we met in Amsterdam and there he gave me a two-page description of a project, which he called, Ahl Abraham: “The goal of the project is to establish a research institute, i.e. compact academic and educational centre for the comparative studies of the Scriptures of Abrahamic monotheism.” After reading the details of the envisioned institute, I am convinced about its important role in establishing peace among children of Adam. Now, how can we raise funds for this institute? Do you have any idea besides suggesting washing cars on the street or selling cookies in the neighborhood? Ezra, Gershom’s friend from Czech Republic, sent me the following brief information about their group:

Peace Edip

This is short description about us which wrote hakham Gershom. I hope that this will be useful for you. 🙂

Russian and Ottoman Qaraim Abroad: Our Religion -Sinai Covenant as revealed by YHWH ELLH on Sinai and continued by the prophets without any men-made additions.Our descent – House of Amram/Imran (Moses/Musa and Aharon/Harun and his only legitimate priesthood of the Sons of Sadoq) and House of Joseph/Yusuf from Biblical Samaria, from where we came finally to the Eastern Europe, prozelyting on our way people from Turkic (Khazar and Kypchak), Persian (Tat), Arab, Greek and Slavic tribes, mingling with them and marrying their women. Our ideology  – Dead See scrolls from the caves of Qumran.

Our methodology – Rational Mu’tazilite approach to the Scriptures, aiming to find a balance between Revelation and Reason. Our cultural, material and linguistic heritage – culture and heritage of Russian&.Ottoman Empires, where we lived last hundreds of years.

Blessings
Ezra
חכם עזרא בן שמחה
Russian and Ottoman Qaraim Abroad
Eşitkin İsrayel, Adonay Teñrimiz, Adonay birdir

Halima Hussain Karwa, a student doing MA in Near and Middle Eastern Studies (SOAS), Halima was a model activist. She worked like a bee without losing the conspicuous smile on her face. I was hoping to have time and get to know her in person, but the schedule of the conference did not allow me to have such and opportunity. I know that she will contribute greatly to the future of Muslim youth in the UK, and beyond.

Hasan Mahmoud of Canada was there too. For the first time we met at Almaty, Kazakhstan. He is perhaps the only person on earth that has memorized the numbers of dozens of hadiths, which insult the intelligence of their audience. Hasan is an expert in using the very sources of Sunni and Shiite sects to convict them in the light of reason and the Quran. He takes his job of delivering the message of Quran very seriously. Like many of us, he is too supporting his volunteer activities through his own budget. With very limited resources, Hasan has managed to produce several DVD’s exposing the injustices and cruelties of the so-called Sharia law. I hope that his expertise get more recognition and put in good use.

Kelly Wentworth, who is a computer programmer and co-director of Atlanta-based American Islamic Fellowship, donated her skills to design the website for registration to the conference. Together with Melissa Robinson and other like-minded activists, they promote the message of peace and human rights. Both shined with their knowledge of the subject and their clarity of mind on the panel titled Gender, Sex, and Human Rights in Current Islamic Discourse. After the conference, they directed the registration site to IMAN-net.org.

Khalid Sayyed was one of the best speakers. Both the content of his speech and the delivery of it were notable. I was excited to learn that Khalid had independently arrived at almost the same conclusions we have had. He was dignified yet humble, and I hope that we will work together to promote the message of rational monotheism. He introduced his new book, which had a contradictory title, Quran Challenges Islam. The content of the book is serious and unfortunately the title betrays it. I recommend him to change the title into Quran Challenges Sunni and Shiite Religions or Quran Challenges Muslims. These titles would still grab the attention of his audience while conveying a coherent message.

Layth Saleh al-Shaiban was more athletic than I expected him to be. Somehow, the pictures of Saudi Princess have prejudiced my mind. I know Layth for about 15 years. Though currently he is like a penguin in the dessert, I consider him a living proof of verse: 9:99-100. Through his books and website, free-minds.org, he has been promoting the message of islam without Sunni and Shiite distortion. Sometimes, I get disappointed when I meet people face to face. But, my experience with Layth was refreshing. I was impressed by his intellectual acumen, bravery, conviction, humble yet dignified presence.  We do have some disagreements in our understanding, but we have so much in common, especially our uncompromising resolve to follow the Quran alone under the light of reason, as the source of eternal salvation. I was looking forward to discuss some issues with him; unfortunately, the hectic schedule of the conference did not allow it. Inshallah, we will meet each other more frequently from now on.

Merrryl Wyn Davies of London-based Muslim Institute is a Media Expert. Merryl was one of the best speakers in the conference. Her speech was informative, engaging and compelling. She demonstrated deep knowledge of global movie industry and the use of movies in promoting the imperialistic propaganda of the West. By listing the names of cast and describing specific scenes of many movies, she was connecting with the Janes and Joes on the street better than any of us could. She is on my orange list for future projects.

Milan Sulc, a software programmer from Switzerland, Milan sees the world in black and white, in prime and composite numbers. He is a gifted mathematician and he has great appreciation of the mathematical structure of the Quran. I must say that usually I cannot follow how he connects the dots between numbers and I have been his critic. Yet, I have great respect for his person and his uncompromising stand for monotheism. He was one of the few persons who stood with me against the idol-carvers when we were both affiliated with United Submitters International. I know Milan for more than 15 years and I have quoted one of his great discoveries in one of my Turkish books, and inshallah I will share it with English-Speaking world in my upcoming book, NINETEEN: God’s Signature in Nature and Scripture.

Misbah Deen is a retired science professor at Keele University and has passion to promote science among Muslims. Through his book, Science Under Islam, he tries to inform and inspire Muslims about their golden age, in which they employed scientific method and produced a great civilization in Spain. If we are going to organize other events in the UK, we will most likely consider Misbah as one of our contacts there.

Raheel Raza came from Toronto and she led the congregational prayer. Though she normally does not cover her hair, somehow she was wearing a head scarf. I was impressed by her speech before the prayer. She was articulate and wise. She reminded me Ruby Amatulla of MPJP, another well-versed activist woman whom I had the privileged to work together. I hesitated to join the prayer there. Not because a woman was leading, since in our Tucson group we had invited and encouraged women to lead the congregational prayers starting in 1999. In fact, in modern times, our group perhaps is the first group that revived the Quranic tradition, which was interrupted and reversed by the innovation of hadith. For the record, I would like to mention the names of women who have lead our congregational prayer since 1999: Sanobar Tafazoli, Maryam Jenna, Faridah Salek, and Martha Schulte. Unlike men, some women in our group shied away to lead the congregational prayers, but they all participate in our joint Quranic studies as equals. Yes, I hesitated to join the prayer there. Because, I heard the Azan, the call for prayer, violating the Quranic maxim expressed in 72:18, “The temples are for God, so do not call on anyone with God,” and other verses such as 39:45.

Raymond Catton and his wife Sophia is known by me since 1988 at the international conference of International Community of Submitters. In 1989, I visited them at Vancouver together with Rashad Khalifa. Rashad and I drove an Olds Mobile car from Tucson to Vancouver through California, Oregon and Washington states. I had just visited the US, and at age 32, I was hundred percent virgin and single. I had not yet had driving license, but I had passed the written exam to get the permit. I had to have a licensed driver next to me. Rashad was the one and he was as crazy as I were. I occasionally set the cruse control on 85 miles per hour and sat on the driver seat my legs folded like pretzel. While driving on high ways, we enjoyed listening to the Quran recitation, talking and eating sun flower seeds. I know, these trivial details have nothing to do with the conference at Oxford, but hey, life is full of silly details and distractions, and I bet the most serious person can relate to this fact. Back to Raymond and Sophia… They are my role models and I am grateful to God for having them as my friends. Ray was scheduled to moderate a panel, but he was in other room being interviewed for a documentary. Thanks, we had Arnold full of energy and he was glad to replace him.

Roy W. Brown, the UN representative from International humanist and Ethical Union was one of the most dedicated participants of the conference. He participated in almost all panels and took diligent notes. Upon my request, he also shared his observations with us: “I learned a lot during the conference and picked up a lot of good ideas. Even though I am not a Muslim, I would like to help in any way I can to help get your organization get off the ground.” In fact, I found Roy’s ideas and actions to be much closer to islam than the great majority of those who claim the title. Roy came up with a lengthy list of ideas and suggestions, and our movement will inshallah benefit substantially from his experience and connections. It was a joy to have Roy there!

Sophia Catton participated in the panel on women’s issues, together with Melissa Robinson, Kelly Wentworth, and Raheel Raza… Sophia was inspirational and uncompromising regarding her respect to the teaching of the Quran. I knew Melissa and Kelly from Atlanta and I was glad that they could make it to the conference. All participants talked brilliantly. At that panel, there was a little confusion on my role. I ended up there playing the role of both a moderator and a panelist. At one point I got emotional and started crying, and it was a very rare display of deep emotions in public. I could not believe it. It was embarrassing. Here, four women are discussing the issues related to gender discrimination and offering solutions in cool manner using a rational language. None of the women was crying except the only man, me. My emotional reaction to the panel was perhaps partially due to remembering my mother, who was deprived of her God-given human rights and buried alive in a black sack that covered all her body, including her face.

T.O. Shanavas, a medical doctor from the USA, used an excellent power point presentation to inform us on the theory of evolution and its origin among Muslim scientists preceding Darwin. Though his presentation was long, he was a good speaker and kept the interest of the audience until the end. The revised edition of Shanavas book on evolution inshallah will soon be in book stores: Islamic Theory of Evolution: The Missing Link Between Darwin and Natural Selection. It is very imperative for us to inform ourselves about this topic, since a Sunni cult leader from Turkey who thinks himself as the Promised Mahdi is using the pseudo-scientific Christian arguments to discredit the theory of evolution in the minds of Muslims, and unfortunately, has attained great success in misleading them.

Tariq Raja was there too, but not many noticed. He is deliberately low profile, yet he is a committed activist for peace and justice. I had the chance to get to know this businessman philanthropist from Netherlands during my three day visit there. He was a generous host and a patient listener. I will share some of our talk below in the section about my visit to Netherlands.

Usama Hasan a gifted and multi-talented man: a scientist, an activist, a theologian, and more, all in one, was perhaps the only Sunni or semi-Sunni panelist. We had invited some other Sunni and Shiite scholars, but none responded to our invitation. Thus, I command Usama for his courage. Well, I mean intellectual courage, since unlike Sunnis, we do not beat up our critics. I have to qualify the courage again: emotional courage. Usama is the son of a respected Sunni scholar, Shaykh Suhaib Hasan. Being the son of another Sunni scholar, I can relate to him. His participation to our conference will most likely receive opposition if not condemnation from his Sunni relatives and constituency. Usama later posted his observations on the conference in his blog titled Unity, where he erroneously attributed it to a local organization. I had a few exchanges with Usama during the conference across the room. It would be more useful if we had a moderated debate. He has a peaceful and objective tone. Yet, in response to my invitation to “trash all hadith,” Usama tried to score a few points on behalf of hadith liturgy: “There are many weak, fabricated & problematic ahadith but the Hadith-rejecters throw the baby out with the bathwater, and I told them that,” which I responded him with the following: “As for the ‘baby’ I discarded with bath water, it was a ‘dinosaur baby,’ and it was still-born.” Living in the UK with the name Usama might be an albatross on the neck. I command him for his involvement in charity work and theological engagement. I am looking forward meeting him at another conference.

Some facts about the Conference

I will not summarize the lectures and discussions during the conference, since most will be published in the second volume of the anthology, Critical Thinkers for Islamic Reform. I think the conference had achieved two goals and fell short in the third. It provided opportunity to share ideas on the theological, political, cultural issues involving Muslims and the world. It also provided opportunity for activist to meet each other in person and establish networking. However, it did not end with a clear direction and concrete group projects. Inshallah, in our next conference, hopefully within less than a year in Istanbul, we will focus on the third objective. The reform movement should not wobble and diversity of ideas should not blur its clear objective: to dedicate system to God alone, the system of peace that produces just, free and progressive communities.

Most likely our next conference will be in Istanbul, and inshallah it will be a major one. I would like also to invite you to consider joining us at Hajj (Debate) Conference at Mecca or Jerusalem in year 2014. Inshallah, later I will share with you the details of that. By then, inshallah the Islamic Reform movement will reach a critical point.

There were about 80 participants, from all around the world. Because of problems in communication with the co-organizer in Oxford, I do not have a complete list of participants. Using the official registration, I gathered the list of the following countries of residence, which does not include the countries of origin. For instance, we had several participants from Iran, but they did not come to the conference from Iran:

Australia

Bengladesh

Bosnia

Canada

Chekoslovakia

Egypt

Germany

India

Jordan

Kazakhstan

Neatherlands

Norway

Pakistan

Saudi Arabia

South Africa

Switzerland

Turkey

United Kingdom

United States

United Nations (I know that is not a country, but it sounds good)

PANELISTS

Adis Duderija (Phd. Islamic Hermeneutics, Bosnia)

Amina Wadud, (Prof. Gender Studies, University Melbourne, Australia)

Arnold Yasin Mol (Author and member of NMP, Netherlands)

Asghar Ali Engineer (PhD. Chairman, Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, India)

Aslbek Mussin (Founder, Izgi Amal, Almaty, Kazakhstan)

Aziz Shaikh (Al-Burhan, South Africa)

Caner Taslaman (Prof. of Philosophy at Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey)

Edip Yuksel (J.D., Author, Founder of Islamic Reform, USA)

Farouk A. Peru (PhD candidate, activist, UK)

Fereydoun Taslimi (Businessman, Noor Foundation, USA)

Gershom Kibrisli (Karamite leader, Israel, Netherlands)

Hasan Mahmoud (Author, Canada)

Imran Goondiwala (Al-Burhan, South Africa)

Kelly Wentwordth (Programmer, Director – American Islamic Fellowship, USA

Khalid Sayyed (Prof, Author, UK)

Layth Saleh al-Shaiban (Author, Activist, Saudi Arabia)

Melissa Robinson (Director – American Islamic Fellowship, USA)

Merrryl Wyn Davies (Media Expert, Muslim Institute, UK)

Milan Sulc (CEO, Software Company, Switzerland)

Misbah Deen (Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Keele, UK)

Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd (Prof of. Islamic Studies at Univ of Leiden & Utrecht, the Netherlands)

Raheel Raza (Author, Public Speaker, Forum for Learning, Canada)

Raymond Catton (Co-founder of Quran Society, Canada)

Ridwaan Davids (Activist, South Africa)

Sophia Catton (Co-founder of Quran Society, Canada)

T.O. Shanvas (M.D., USA)

Taj Hargey (Professor of History, Oxford University, UK)

Usama Hasan (PhD, The City Circle, UK )

PARTIAL LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

Abdun Nur

Ahmet Kintas

Ashari Ali

Asim Shafiq

Asli Unal

Darren Brown and his family

Fawad Choudhary, PhD

Fiona Brathwaite

Hakan Unal

Halima Hussain Karwa

Harris Choudhary

Harris Ramzan Choudhary

Helen Vicky Sandouga

Hussein Sandouga

Iftikhar Ahmad

Katarzyna Gajewska

K. A.

Latasha Embree

Mahmud Rogers

Mahmut Arikan

Maqbool M. Farhat (Chairman of Basm Tolo-e-Islam, London)

Nadia Choudhary

Nadira Choudhary

Nour Alsanosi

Noura Mansouri

Novin Doostdar

Ogunfolajin Maruff

Oguzhan Aygoren

Roy Brown

Samir Benjelloun

Sarah Stitou

Serik Kushenov

S.R.A.

Shobbir Hussain

Tariq Choudhary

Tariq Raja

Ummad Choudhary

Volkan Gungor

COULD NOT MAKE IT TO THE CONFERENCE, BUT WILL SUBMIT PAPER

Abdullahi al-Naim (Prof of Law, Emory, USA)

Abdur Rab (PhD. Author, Economist, USA)

Aisha Musa (Prof of Islamic Studies, Florida International University)

Ali Behzadnia (M.D. Former member of first cabinet of Islamic Republic of Iran, USA)

Asma Ishak (J.D., Toronto Law School)

Chris and Linda Moore (Retired Entrepreneurs, UK and Turkey)

El-Mehdi Haddou (Vetenerian, Canada)

Gatut Adisoma (PhD, Activist, Indonesia)

Ghayasuddin Siddiqui (PhD, Muslim Congress, UK)

Hasan Bin Izhaar (PhD, Pakistan)

Hussain Najafi (Businessman, USA)

Kassim Ahmad (Author, Political leader, Malaysia)

Martha Schulte (Prof. Arabic University of Texas, USA)

Matthew Capiello (PR MPJP, USA)

Muhammad Shahrur (Prof, Syria)

Mustafa Akyol (Author, Turkey)

Nafeez Mossadeq Ahmed (Prof. Sussex University)

Ruby Amatulla (President MPJP, Author, USA)

London

The following day after the conference, I took a taxi and moved to London to meet some muslim brothers and sisters there. On my way to London, I dropped my bags at a hotel nearby Heathrow airport. I met Farouk in downtown London that looks an upgraded street from a Middle East country. I was surprised to see so many Muslim owned businesses and shops. I was speechless when I saw women in black sacks, covering all their bodies, including their faces. I have tolerance to all sorts of religious symbols and attire, yet my tolerance and acceptance stops at burqa or face veil. Depriving women from their identity cannot be accepted by the society, as none should be allowed to degrade themselves as slaves. I took some pictures from that street, and you will find them at: http://picasaweb.google.com/edipyuksel

We reserved a Malaysian restaurant for a small meeting where we had engaging conversations with Mo Zourdani, Peter Baldwin, Immanuel Ibrahim, Kristiane Backer, Syed Mohsin Abbas and a few others. Each had interesting and inspiring stories. I would like to get their stories about their spiritual and intellectual transformation and include it in an upcoming book containing such stories. This invitation is valid for all of you who have questioned your inherited religion and discovered monotheism. Kristiane Becker was an MTV host and after her embracing Islam she found herself out. She is now a single woman working as a free lance media consultant and journalist. Syed Mohsin Abbas is active in the community and through his company ArtsVersa, he organizes the annual Ramadan Festival. I hope that we will find a way to unite our ideas, talents, services and goods in creating a more peaceful and just world.

Zielona Gora, Poland

Zielona Gora? I never heard the name of that city, which means Green Mountains, before I accepted the invitation there by a group of converts from Christianity. Ezra Ben Simcha, a monotheist from Czech Republic who follows Torah, informed me about such a group and he wanted me to meet them. They had intellectual problems with the polytheistic teachings and contradictory practices of their church. I met five families there. They were Catholic first, and then they switched to Protestantism or Evangelism, which they called Charismatic Church. Then, through Ezra they explored Judaism. Knowing that they would be unable to follow the strict rules of the Old Testament, Ezra informed them about the Final Testament, and its mathematical code. Upon learning about the Quran they decided to accept islam (peacemaking) as their system. Then Ezra asked me to send them the copies of the Quran: a Reformist Translation, which I did.

I landed in Berlin airport around Noon of June 17. I was impressed by the efficiency of the German bureaucracy; claiming my luggage and passing through passport and custom inspection took less than fifteen minutes.

Before my trip, I was asked by a few monotheist friends living in Germany to spend a night with them. Initially, I entertained the idea but later I decided to spend two nights with the Polish monotheists as we had discussed early. Remiquisz (Remik) Bieganski and his wife Ewa drove all the way from Zielona Gora to the Berlin-Tegel airport, traveling about 180 kilometers. They were delayed, so I spend a few hours in that small airport designed in a perfect circle. I got tired of circumnutating with my luggage. Everything seemed smaller compared to the United States. Tiny cute cars pulled my attention. Even the doors to the public bathrooms were small. So, I had to leave my bags in the cart by the main door and hope that none would steal them while I was in the rest room.

Remik and Ewa first took me to the apartment of Jacek and Agnieszka live. The neighborhood was clean and nice. Around a huge green open space there were several apartment buildings, each with 5 to 10 floors. Jacek (35) had the body of a football player and had the demeanor of a stand-up comedian. He was extremely funny and happy. They had two bright and cute kids, Asia (8) and Dawid (4). Jacek is working in a furniture manufacturing company as technical supervisor, while his wife Agnieszka is professor at the State University in Zielona Gora.

Remik then took me to his home, which was in Broniszow, about 20 minutes away from the main town. I fell in love with the road between Zielona Gora and Remik’s home; both side of the road was covered with rows of high trees. I do not remember seeing so much greenery anywhere. Compared to Zielona Gora San Diego appears like a desert. I learned that I would be staying at Remik and Ewa’s home. It was a newly built modern two stories house with high ceiling in the middle of a forest. Remik was still working on some unfinished construction. I had come there with T-shirts and shorts. Though it was mid June, the temperature was about 10-15 Celsius degrees, which was a positive change for me. While outside of the house, I noticed the unfinished frame of the window. There was about 20-cm thick insulation on the external wall. The huge piles of wood outside, the magnificent fire place, and that thick insulation were testifying to a very cold winter… Glad that I was there in the best of times. During the meal Remik brought a bowl of small blue berries collected by his neighbor from nearby bushes. They were fresh and delicious.

Remik and Ewa were very generous hosts. Their home was very clean and organized. Their daughters Asia (17) and Misia (14) were very smart and respectful. They participated in our conversation and discussion all day. Remik asked me to introduce them to their peers who try to live according to the Quran.

Since only a few of the new converts knew English, Ezra translated my lecture and then question and answer session. Ezra, together with Jan Cichy and Joseph came all the way from Czech Republic to join us there. They were very interested to learn more about the prophetic mathematical structure of the Quran, which Jacek recorded through his camcorder. I enjoyed every moment together. My joy reached its zenith when Jacek got a guitar and started playing Haga Nagila, my favorite song. I received the video recording of the moment and posted at youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LczBsBtOIbI

To see the short lecture on Code 19, which was translated into Polish by Hakham Ezra check:

http://www.uschovna.cz/vyzvednout1.php/Uschovna4c2a073d883ae58

Amsterdam and Rotterdam, Netherlands

Mahmut Arıkan and Volkan Güngör took me from the airport to a new apartment by a lake. It had new furniture and I would be its first resident. The host, Tariq Raj, a Pakistani Briton businessman, was a generous and thoughtful host; he had filled its fridge with snacks and juice, and the kitchen had all the necessary utensils to cook and brew tea. Tariq invited me and friends to breakfast and dinners to his triplex residence nearby.

In Netherlands, I met many Turkish monotheists, such as Ahlem Özdemir and Derya Baglikol. Ahlem, a divorced women mother of two, invited us to dinner. She had cooked too many dishes and too much food. There was so much left over, she insisted that we take some to my apartment, which Mahmud did it gladly. Ahlem was working at Red Cross and she told me that she asked her boss to allocate the conference room in their building for my lecture. After searching about me via Internet, her boss discovers that I was not an apple, but a jalapeño pepper, and would be too much controversial and liability for their organization. Ahlem impressed me with her knowledge, intellectual independence, and rhetorical skills. She was an independent woman in almost every aspect of her life. She had a teen son who was bright and engaging; I was glad that he respected her mother and cherished her. The same with Derya… She too had strong ideas, and together with Ahlem both were having the most of the talks while I and more than half a dozen Turkish men listened. I was glad to witness such a revolution.

There I met many Turkish monotheists whom I have been in contact via Internet: Mahmut Alioğlu who lives in Bochum, Germany, and works in a virus-protection software company…. Years ago, Mahmut designed a simple yet functional program called Kitap (Book) to browse various Quran translations, including mine. (We have its web based version at: www.quranix.com ). Ahmet Eraslan who uses Suvari penname on Internet lives in Belgium and works as a teacher. I also had great time at Gamal and Iglal’s home where Iglal showed off with her talents as a cook. Iglal was on the cover of a cook book that contained recipes and pictures of ethnic cuisine from about 20 countries.

I do not wish to bore you with a list of names… So, let me share with you a few small activities we did together. After consultation, we decided to distribute a pamphlet containing the summary of Manifesto for Islamic Reform in front of a mosque after the Friday prayer. Tariq’s son volunteered to print the pamphlet and he added a few lines inviting the readers to contact the Muslim reformists in Holland. Tariq and his family together with Mahmut and Volkan helped me to fold the pamphlets.

I wanted to teach my friends who live in Holland how to share the message, especially when government or religious institutions deprive their citizens or followers from hearing the message of monotheism, liberation and peace. As our first station, I asked them to take me to the biggest mosque. They took me to Ahle Sunnat wa Djamaat – Hanafi (People of the Sunna and Crowd – Hanafi). Volkan, Mahmut, and another comrade helped me in distributing the pamphlet in front of the mosque after the Friday prayer. I started engaging the “sunni crowd” and occasionally used confrontational language and even calculated provocation to accomplish that. It did not take too long for imam to come out to protect his herd from getting confused and disoriented. The Pakistani imam, with his Arabic garb and well-nourished beard, acted cool. He was clever and diplomatic in dealing with my vociferous criticism against their teachings. I accused him of misleading those people and teaching them not to use their reasoning faculties, of promoting polytheism, misogynistic ideas and practices, and all sorts of superstitions. Imam initially had a fake smile on his face and tried to ignore my charges. But, when he heard some specific criticism, he resorted to distortion and manipulation of his followers.

I wanted to train my friends how to deliver the message to a protected crowd. Arnold did not join us; he was watching us from across the street. He told me that he took several photos while we were delivering the message in front of the mosque.

For the second mission, we went to Milli Görüş (Religious/National View) mosque, which as complex with a school, café, etc…. During my youth, as an Islamist youth leader, I worked within the same group, a religious political group that many of today’s mover and shakers in Turkish politics belonged. For instance, Turkish current prime minister Tayyip Erdoğan was my friend from high school, and we work together in the same political organization for the same territory for several years. Turkey’s current minister of defense, Ahmet Davudoğlu too was affiliated with the same group and we attended Bosporus University together. After my rejection of hadith and Sunna in 1986, my relationship with them deteriorated gradually until I was forced to immigrate to the USA in 1989. I knew that I was persona non-grata there.

There I was going to show my friends in Netherlands how to deliver the message to a hostile group in a friendly way and in a low voice. Many who knew the ideas of this group about me and my decision to impromptu drop in their den would consider it a risky decision. Indeed, it was risky. Any of them could attack me. The moment I entered the courtyard of its café, a tall young men noticed me and recognized me as Edip Yuksel. A few others looked at us and their reaction was a mixture of confusion, fear and curiosity. I informed them that I was visiting them for a friendly chat and I asked them to bring us tea. We sat on the chairs around a table in the open air courtyard. Only one of them felt comfortable enough to sit with us. I started the conversation with friendly and humorous gambits. Then it soon evolved to theological and political discussion. A few others emerged, first studying us from about five to ten meters afar. They would not sit down; but walk around with anxious pace. It was obvious from their faces, their body language and their indecision that they did not know how to handle me. A few of them would go inside the café and come back again. They considered me an apostate, a betrayer against the legacy of well-respected Yuksel family. I had disappeared by immigrating to the Great Satan two decades ago and would once a while hit and run via live TV appearances that would cause many to question their inherited religion, yet here I was sitting among them, in their bastion.

Then one of them, while standing accused me of living in the USA, en imperialist country. I countered by telling them my contempt to the USA’s foreign policy and yet my appreciation of its Constitution. I reminded them the fact, just because someone lives in a country does not mean the person is supporting everything the government’s policies. The circle grew to more than a dozen participants. Two young men in their thirties, whom the rest appeared to respect, engaged in a heated debate with me on hadith and sunna. It was obvious that they had in depth information regarding the defense of hadith and their attack against the so-called “Quran-alone” position. At one point I picked one of the debaters, and asked everyone to witness my exposition of his condemnation by the Quran. I made sure everyone was all ears. I asked everyone not to interrupt until I am done with that one-to-one Socratic Dialogue. Then, carefully and methodologically I went through my cross examination, step by step asking response from the young Sunni man. Each response led to another question. In less than five minutes, everyone witnessed the young man been impeached by the Quran. Of course, it was not an impeachment of a person; it was an impeachment of one of the history’s greatest frauds that has been promoted by the following diabolic twist: “following messenger means following hadith reports that were collected centuries after his death.”

After about half an hour in debate, one of the debaters started hearing my arguments, and started appreciating some of my points. Within an hour they started debating among themselves. The internal debate reached its zenith when I wanted to discuss the discrepancy among the three versions of the Last Sermon. One of the debaters wanted to hear my take on it, while others, smelling trouble, wanted to avoid it. I wanted to hit this point since it would destroy the reliability of their most reliable hadith. The internal strife and quarrel lasted for a few minutes. I had summarized this problem in my first English Book, Nineteen Questions for Muslim Scholars:

It is the alleged final sermon (Khutba) of the Prophet (Khutbat Al-Wadaa’). This great and historic event is reported in many important books of hadith, including Muslim, Muwatta, Ibn Majah, Abu Dawud, Ahmed Ibn Hanbal. The big problem is: these books report three vastly different doctrines from this historic sermon which was witnessed by 100,000 witnesses (most hadiths were supposedly witnessed by 1 or 2 people). In fact, the main topic in that all-important sermon gives three contradicting commandments. Here is what the prophet allegedly said:

1)     “I am leaving for you two things that you must uphold, the Quran and my Sunnah” (According to Muwatta 46/3).

2)     “I am leaving for you the Quran and my relatives (Ahl Al- Bayt)” (According to Muslim 44/4, Nu 2408; Ibn Hanbal 4/366; Darimi 23/1, Nu 3319).

3)     “I am leaving for you the Quran; you shall uphold it” (According to Muslim 15/19, Nu 1218; Ibn Majah 25/84, Nu 3074; Abu Dawud 11/56, Nu 1905).

As you see, the LAST words of the LAST sermon of the LAST prophet which had been witnessed by the greatest number of his friends have been reported in three different versions.

• What did the prophet leave for us according to your most authentic hadith? Which one of the three reports is correct?
• What did the prophet leave for us according to the best hadith, i.e., the Quran? (6:19,38,114; 5:48-49; 12:111; 39:23).
• How can we trust those hadith books which can change the most important words, though witnessed by thousands of people? Which hadith can we trust beside the Quran (45:6)?

I can confidently say that I am never surprised by any argument made on behalf of Sunni or Shiite sects or religions. I know their all arguments. In fact, before my rejection of the sectarian teachings, I was writing books defending them. So, I was not surprised that they asked their favorite question, “How do you pray without hadith?” or “Why you do not say ‘Sallallahu alayhi wassallam’ after Prophet Muhammad’s name, sallallahu alayhi wasallam“?

Most of the people discussing religion and politics tend not to hear the other side’s argument. They might appear to be listening, in fact, what they are doing is monologue. Therefore, once a while I interrupt them and I say this:

“You said this and that. Your position on this issue is this and that. Have I summarized your position correctly?”  Hearing their position from my mouth, expressed succinctly, clearly and correctly, perhaps much better than they could ever articulate, they usually pause and listen without interrupting me. I notice a sense of relief and appreciation in their eyes. Then, I ask my question: now it is turn. Can you please repeat my position? What is my response to your criticism or your position? They usually pause, this time with embarrassment and confusion. They notice that they cannot repeat my position as I have done theirs. So, they become witness against themselves: their ears are deaf to my words. Afterwards, I go back and repeat my answer; this time having their full attention. Of course, I cannot keep repeating this device to teach them how to debate, since they usually turn back to their old habit of pontificating passionately without listening/understanding their opponents. But, it sometimes helps the audience to pay more attention to what I say. This tuning device during debates should be implemented with care, since there is a risk of being perceived as arrogant or patronizing.

A few older people in the audience, noticing that their sectarian version was melting like ice under the light of reason and evidence, became irritated. An old man passionately interrupted our discussion, and accused me of insulting prophet Muhammad. He started praising Muhammad and asking them not to continue the debate. I was glad to see a few younger member of their group stood for me and tried to cool him down: “No he is not insulting Prophet Muhammad.” It is ironic to see the followers of hadith liturgy that contains the worst lies and insults against Prophet Muhammad.

***

This report got longer than I expected. I would like to share with you some important observations regarding the growing and brewing stress between Muslim immigrant minority in Netherlands and the Dutch natives. Hopefully, I will do so within a week.

You may leave comments under the pictures from the Conference and my European tour are posted at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/edipyuksel