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December 27, 2004
Thanksgiving to Turkey - Europe Moves East, and Turkey Moves West
[Originally published in The Weekly Standard]
WITH LAST WEEK'S vote in Brussels, the admission of Turkey to the European Union has come one step nearer. Yet some still suspect that the accession of an overwhelmingly Muslim nation to the E.U. will signify an alarming new intrusion of Islam into a continent already uneasy about its Muslim minorities. Some fear—to put it more provocatively—that Turkish membership in the E.U. will turn out to be an Islamic Trojan horse.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 3:21 PM | Comments (0)
December 3, 2004
What's Right With Turkey [A Reply to Gamaliel Isaac]
[Originally published in FrontPage Magazine]
About a week ago, Frontpage Magazine posted an article by Gamaliel Isaac, entitled "Turkey's Dark Past." Mr. Isaac's piece was basically an attempt to rebut of one of my previous articles, "European Muslims and The Quest For the Soul of Islam." I have argued there that, among many other things, Turkey has had an Islamic heritage free of anti-Westernism and anti-Semitism and has now an atmosphere quite favorable to open society. Further, I suggested that the West should certainly support Turkey's entry into the European Union, noting that this would blur the "civilizational" boundaries and create a model for other Muslim nations.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 12:51 AM | Comments (1)
December 1, 2004
Show Us More of The Other America
[Originally published in The American Enterprise magazine, also available in PDF]
"Why do you hate us?" Since the horrendous events of 9/11, Americans have been posing that question to Muslims across the globe. The first answer from someone like me, who is repulsed by terrorists who kill in the name of Islam, is that most of us do not hate you. Yet it must be acknowledged that radical Muslim rage is real in many countries.
This rage is often irrational and ill founded. There is, however, one crucial source of anti-Americanism that is built on a genuine threat. Many Muslims are put off by the moral decline that seems to have pervaded American culture during the second half of the twentieth century. They worry that it will be exported to their own children and societies.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 12:25 AM | Comments (3)
