Aficionados of the clash of civilisations are fond of the thesis that the Muslim world’s problem is that it has not undergone a reformation. This imperiously ignores that Islam, by retrieving the classics of Greek science and philosophy, dragged Europe out of the dark ages and made possible the Renaissance.

It is nonetheless true that the articulation of modern Islamic thinking is hampered by a number of self-inflicted handicaps. News that Turkey’s religious establishment is close to completing a modern reinterpretation of Islam is therefore a potentially huge – and highly controversial – development.