Source: Religion News Service

ISTANBUL (RNS) In the bustling conservative Fatih district, Fadel Solimon looks at the floor and nods as a young woman asks him for advice on how to respond to criticism of Islam on Twitter.  

“Ever since these Paris attacks, people have been tweeting at me with all these verses in the Quran saying to conquer land, expand borders, force everyone to convert or pay the jizya,” she said, referring to a tax levied on non-Muslims.

“No, that’s not true, that’s not true,” interjected Solimon.  

“But the verses are there,” continued the woman. “They are in the Quran. Didn’t empires like the Ottoman Empire spread like that?”

“Defending Islam is not defending Islamic history,” Solimon replied. “The Ottomans were not angels. The Umayyads were not angels. The Abbasids were not angels. You shouldn’t defend Islamic history,” he said, recounting three historical Muslim empires.  

Solimon then returned to the verses under examination in the Quran and offered his own view. “The Quran simply says if a neighboring country violates a peace agreement, or they attack you, you can defend yourself. … It does not teach you to conquer for wealth, but to remove oppression, to defend the weak.”

A former imam at American University in Washington, D.C., the now London-based Solimon has spent more than a decade training Muslims on interfaith outreach. He is a member of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, rubbed elbows with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and spent time advising the group’s members during the short-lived government of Mohammed Morsi.

Solimon is among a growing number of Muslim preachers seeking to change the understanding of Islam and modernity. While much of this internal dialogue is taking place in conferences in Western countries, Solimon is one of a handful of preachers targeting the rank and file, reaching more than 19,000 students seeking the tools to counter Muslim critics, and in the process, relearning the traditional precepts of their faith.

Like other reformers,  Solimon’s views draw criticism not only from those outside the faith who say he does not go far enough in denouncing some Islamic teachings, but also from Muslims who find it difficult to reconcile his pragmatic interpretations with what they consider traditional teachings.

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