Tekbir Giyim is a leading Turkish design firm that provides conservative yet stylish Islamic fashion. According to the Turkish Daily News, however, it's a mission that draws criticism from secularists and religious alike:
Secularist commentators in the media have accused him of contributing to the "Islamization" of society by presenting the conservative Islamic dress code as something modern.
Islamic commentators have opposed him as well. Mehmet Şevket Eygi, a conservative Islamic pundit who writes for the daily Milli Gazete, a newspaper in line with the Islamist Saadet Party of Necmeddin Erbakan, wrote critically of the "Islamic catwalks" that Tekbir Giyim organizes.
"In Islam, it is wrong for women to walk attractively in front of men," Eygi wrote, "and it is a shame that this is done today in an allegedly Islamic spirit." He also argued, "This is an exploitation of religion for worldly purposes."
Apparently, those agreeing with Eygi also include some less conservative Muslims. Two liberal theologians from Ankara University, publishers of the modernist theology journal Islamiyat, filed a court case against Tekbir Giyim last week, simply because of its name.
The problem is that Tekbir is a holy concept in Islam, noted Drs. Süleyman and İlhami Güler, and it refers to the proclamation of the basic credo: There is no god but God.
Therefore the company is exploiting sacred concepts for purposes of trade, the two scholars told the Ankara prosecutor, and thus its name needs to change.
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