Islam has many references about seeking knowledge, probably best expressed in the hadiths (Al-Tirmidhi 74 and 108 for example) but also found to some extent in

Islam has many references about seeking knowledge, probably best expressed in the hadiths (Al-Tirmidhi 74 and 108 for example) but also found to some extent in the Quran. With learned knowledge (eg science) in the Arabic world at a very low point these days, it's clear that your answer is pretty much #1. Yes, an Ataturk direction would be a good direction to go. It is true as another poster mentioned that Judaism's rather barbaric Old Testament is tempered by knowledge-seeking scholarly tradition in Judaism and the reforms of the New Testament in Christianity. Too much of Islam does not have much of this at the moment, in fact, recent history has somewhat undone the reforms first undertaken by the Ottoman empire (mixed civil based on French law and sharia, a system still in some countries like Jordan) and the later reforms of Ataturk. Ataturk's perspective is good to note. He was very much against political Islam. He did not seem to be against Islam itself (and in fact encouraged study by sponsoring and radio-reading Quran translations etc.). Actually, he felt religion was an important institution, if I recall, but it should be personal, and not magical, superstitious, or archaic. Part of the reason why I really don't care about trying to prove one religion has more violent text than another, is that I believe anti-rational, political oriented religious fundamentalism is a danger period, no matter what the form. It is not "equal" at the moment, by far. But in the US we have too many Christian fundamentalist pointing fingers at the horrors of Islamic fundamentalism... while simultaneously trying to lead us in that direction. I don't want American Christians to take us where Islam went 750 years ago.