Yes, Turkey's president is deeply wrong about what secularism is and how it should be applied in this country. Let me explain why and how.

According to conventional wisdom the principle of secularism is explained in Article 24 of the Turkish Constitution. That article, among other things, decrees that “religion or religious feelings” can't be used “for even partially basing the fundamental, social, economic, political and legal order of the state on religious tenets.”

That's all good. Please just note that the article says that the order of the STATE cannot be based on religion. It does not say anything about SOCIETY. And this means that religion cannot have an influence on the former, but it can flourish in the latter. (As is the case in most secular and free countries, such as the United States.)

However, for some Turkish statesmen like Mr. Sezer – and many other politicians and pundits – state and society are apparently not distinct phenomena. They actually believe that the state should be dominant over society and make the latter as secular as possible. (As used to be the case in most secular tyrannies, such as the Soviet Union.)

Secularism and the Sumerian sex cults

Mr. Sezer has expressed his faith in the state's mission to secularize society quite openly and repeatedly over the past seven years. He once argued that secularism was the principle that makes certain “religion has no legal, political and social power.” (In a democratic country, of course, the state and thus the president of the state are supposed to mind only their own business and respect society's preferences in matters of faith.)

Mr. Sezer's concept of secularism not only interferes with society, it also dictates the individual's actions. He once said that the state can limit individual freedoms in order to “protect the social order” against religious influences. He also praised the secular individual as “the person who does not allow his faith to influence his worldly life.” (Whereas anybody who has taken Religious Studies 101 knows that virtually all faiths influence the worldly lives of their followers.) Mr. Sezer even went as far as to define secularity as “what makes one human.” People whose lives are influenced by their religious beliefs, according to this definition, have to be regarded as immature.

President Mr. Sezer not only preaches secularism as a principle that should guide human lives, he also awards the ideologues who serve this “secularizing mission.” A few months ago he gave the annual Atatürk Award to a controversial historian named Muazzez İlmiye Çığ. What makes the 97-year old Çığ controversial is her depiction of Judaism, Christianity and Islam as offshoots of ancient Sumerian sex cults. For Mr. Sezer, that's apparently the message that Turkish “secularism” should teach Turkish society.

Neutrality Between Religion and Irreligion

If we were living in Enver Hoxa's Albania, Mao's Red China or Kim Il Sung's North Korea, all of that would be fair game. But alas Turkey is, or at least supposed to be, a free and democratic country. In such countries the state may stay as secular as can be, but it has no right to dictate to its citizens whether they should be religious or not. Nor does it have the right to discriminate against people with religious lifestyles. In a free and democratic country it is the individual's prerogative to decide on the state's identity, not the other way around.

The trouble with Mr. Sezer's definition is not only his lack of understanding of this basic democratic principle, but also the way in which he violated secularism. Secularism as a political principle is supposed to be an attitude of neutrality between all religions and, moreover, all philosophical beliefs – including atheist ones. With his championship of a secular worldview and lifestyle – based on philosophies such as materialism and positivism – Mr. Sezer is siding against religion.

Turkey can't continue with this draconian perception of secularism that creates continuous tension in society. We obviously need a paradigm shift by which secularism will be understood as a liberating, not tyrannizing, principle.

But of course paradigm shifts are hard to achieve, because the proponents of the old paradigms fiercely resist them. That always reminds me a quote by Max Planck, the Nobel-winning German physicist. “A new truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light,” Planck said, “but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.”

Don't get me wrong: I hope that Mr. Sezer will have a long and joyful life. But I think it is a blessing for the rest of us that his presidency will come to its natural end in a few months. That will be an important step towards a freer Turkey.