Not a provocation, it is the Islamic Middle Ages

Muslims do not have any issues with bigotry, violence and gender inequality. Massacre machines such as al-Qaeda, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Taliban and Boko Haram do not belong to Muslims. They are all "provocations" of the West, the U.S., and Zionism?

"Some people" are using Muslims for a "perception operation" to create hostility against Islam. Do you want proof? Well look, Islamophobia is spreading!

No, the reason for the abundance of bloodshed in the Islamic world, and the reason for brutal attacks such as Sept. 11 and the Paris massacre is that a significant portion of Muslims are still living the "Middle Ages."

There, they find a "fatwa" for any act in Islamic Law (fiqh) books written in the Middle Ages and think that this is religion.

Condemnation not enough

Barbaric acts should absolutely be condemned with a loud voice. I applaud Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu's joining of the Jan. 11 march in Paris.

However, condemnation is not enough. A diagnosis must also be made. This falls to Professor Davuto?lu more than anybody else. Not because of his position, but because of his academic capacity.

Eleventh President Abdullah Gül had issued diagnoses and warnings on several occasions. Twelve years ago, at the Islamic Conference in Tehran, then-Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül had said, "It is now time for the Islamic world to adopt contemporary norms ? While we take strength from our spiritual values, it should be rationalism that guides us." (May 29, 2003)

Gül later also made the correct diagnosis and warned on Aug. 16, 2012 in Mecca at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, as well as on Aug. 4, 2013 at Istanbul Forum, that "What Europe went through in the Middle...