March 7, 2010
And Now, The Plot is Proven...
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
Something very important happened last Monday. A short statement from the Turkish General Staff noted that its investigators had gathered "evidence that might prove the existence of the document in question."
"The document in question" was quite a terrible one. It was a military plan to overthrow the AKP government and suppress the popular Islamic movement led by Fethullah Gülen, a retired preacher who lives in the U.S. One idea was to "find" weapons in the homes of people from the Gülen movement by planting them there first and thus portraying the peaceful community as a terrorist group.
Continue reading "And Now, The Plot is Proven..."
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 1:44 AM | Comments (1)
February 26, 2010
Why I Should Be Fired, Jailed and Beheaded
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
One of the great things about the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review is its lack of censorship. Hence, I can write in my columns what I believe, and, in return, readers can comment in the way they deem fit. Some can even bring in bold suggestions that I should be fired from the newspaper, then "jailed for life" and even "beheaded."
Continue reading "Why I Should Be Fired, Jailed and Beheaded"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 12:40 AM | Comments (0)
February 19, 2010
From Kemalist Oligarchy to Chaotic Polyarchy
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
By now, it is clear to all that an unarmed war is going on within the Turkish state. The latest episode in Erzincan, a city in the east, and its repercussions in Ankara, a city in turmoil, is telling enough.
Things began several months ago. First, Erzincan's chief prosecutor, İlhan Cihaner, started an investigation about a conservative Islamic community in town. Meanwhile, a prosecutor from the neighboring city of Erzurum, Osman Şanal, who had a special authority to investigate the Ergenekon case, suspected something different.
Continue reading "From Kemalist Oligarchy to Chaotic Polyarchy"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 3:18 PM | Comments (1)
February 10, 2010
Will Turkish Laicite Save The World?
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
An opinion piece published in these pages a few days ago was praising Turkey's self-styled secularism with generous words. This thing called laicite, originally an import from France, was, according to the argument, so great that now it was "becoming an asset for Turkey's relations with Europe." And the proof, the reasoning went, was that a few European countries were studying Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate in order to train their own state-supported imams.
Well, I have hardly heard an argument that is this objectionable. And let me tell you why.
Continue reading "Will Turkish Laicite Save The World?"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 1:21 PM | Comments (2)
January 26, 2010
Kemalism Needs to Be Disarmed - and Privatized
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
Turkey's latest national controversy over the alleged coup plan codenamed "Sledgehammer" will probably remain as just that: a controversy. The generals who seem responsible will probably not face any trial, for the military remains as an untouchable institution, especially after being saved last week by the Constitutional Court from civilian scrutiny. A bit like the ancient legal maxim, "The prince is above the law," Turkish laws place the generals above the justice system that we, the lesser mortals, are subject to.
Continue reading "Kemalism Needs to Be Disarmed - and Privatized"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:11 PM | Comments (0)
January 23, 2010
Does The Turkish Military Make Plans to Kill Turkish People?
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
Have you taken a look at the recent exposure about the amazing adventures of Turkey's Dr. Strangelovish generals? It is a must-see.
What I am referring to is the action plan called "Balyoz" (Sledgehammer) that the liberal daily Taraf published a few days ago. The extensive document, whose full name is the "Sledgehammer Security Operation Plan," was apparently drafted in 2003, a little after the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, came to power.
Continue reading "Does The Turkish Military Make Plans to Kill Turkish People?"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:37 PM | Comments (1)
January 19, 2010
Toward a Liberal 'Political Islam'?
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
Political Islam, as you probably have noticed before, is a dirty term. It often refers to angry men who impose veils on women and ban anything that is fun. It even reminds us of the horrific reign of the Taliban, whose heaven on Earth in Afghanistan looked rather like hell for most of us.
There is a good reason for this notoriety of political Islam. Its main proponents, such as the Pakistani thinker Abul A'ala Mawdudi (1903-1979), defined it as the effort to create an "Islamic state," whose main mission would be the imposition of shariah, or Islamic law, within its most rigid and medieval interpretation.
Continue reading "Toward a Liberal 'Political Islam'?"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:33 PM | Comments (0)
January 11, 2010
Ahmet Davutoğlu: Yet Another Crypto-Armenian?
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
Ahmet Davutoğlu, the former academic who has been mastering Turkish foreign policy since 2003, is a remarkable man. First as an adviser to the prime minister, and recently as foreign minister, he really transformed the way Ankara does business in the world. His strategies of "zero problems with neighbors," "pro-active engagement," or "multi-lateral foreign policy" made Turkey a much more influential actor in its region. You might like or dislike the results of this new paradigm, but it would be only fair to acknowledge the depth and creativity of its vision.
Continue reading "Ahmet Davutoğlu: Yet Another Crypto-Armenian?"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 2:26 PM | Comments (0)
December 25, 2009
From the Archives: A Governing Sharia
Yet another belated post: My book review of Islam and The Secular State by Prof. Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im. It was published in the December 2008 issue of First Things, a monthly theology magazine.
Continue reading "From the Archives: A Governing Sharia"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:04 PM | Comments (0)
Why The Turkish Caesar Crucified The Ecumenical Patriarch
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew recently said on American TV that he feels "crucified" in Turkey. And many Turks got upset with him.
His All Holiness is right, though, to complain about the Turkish Republic. The latter has kept the Halki Seminary, the only institution to train Orthodox priests in the country, closed since 1971. Even the title "ecumenical" is lashed out at by some Turkish authorities and their nationalist supporters. Every year, international reports on religious freedom point to such pressures on the Ecumenical Patriarchate with concern, and they are right to do so.
Continue reading "Why The Turkish Caesar Crucified The Ecumenical Patriarch"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 7:12 PM | Comments (0)
December 14, 2009
Will Turkey's Caste System Survive?
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
Orhan Pamuk, Turkey's Nobel laureate in literature, has an interesting passage in his cherished book, "Istanbul." He recalls his childhood days in the '50s, and tells how the urban upper class he grew up within looked down upon their practicing co-religionists. "The nation-state," he writes, "belonged more to us than to the religious poor."
Continue reading "Will Turkey's Caste System Survive?"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 8:53 PM | Comments (15)
November 25, 2009
Tearing Down the Ankara Wall (In Slow-Motion)
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
Twenty years ago, in November 1989, the Berlin Wall came down. It took just a few weeks to tear it into pieces. It took only a little more than that to disestablish the East German state apparatus. In January 1990, the infamous Stasi, "The Ministry for State Security," was stormed by people who demanded the destruction of their "personal files," and, ultimately, the end of communism.
Continue reading "Tearing Down the Ankara Wall (In Slow-Motion)"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 1:14 AM | Comments (0)
November 21, 2009
How the Turkish Military Conspires Against Turkish Society
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
As most tourists discover in just a few days, Turkey is an amazing country with great history, beautiful nature, and delicious food. But one needs to spend a little more time to discover that its powerful military is pretty amazing as well.
Continue reading "How the Turkish Military Conspires Against Turkish Society"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 2:14 AM | Comments (1)
May 17, 2009
Revisiting Kemalism's 'Western Orientation'
[Originally published in Hürriyet Daily News]
One of the narratives about Turkey that we hear very often these days is the "Western orientation" of its Kemalist revolution. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, we are told, Mustafa Kemal and his followers emerged as the saviors of the country by recreating it as a modern republic and turning its face to the West. This story is often followed by alarmist comments about the current destination of Turkey under its current government. The Kemalists are not in power anymore, we are warned, and the new non-Kemalist elite is changing its orientation from the West to the East.
Continue reading "Revisiting Kemalism's 'Western Orientation'"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 6:13 AM | Comments (4)
April 16, 2009
Turkish Libido Versus Halki Seminary
[Originally published in Hürriyet Daily News]
If you want to understand why the Halki Seminary, the main school of theology of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Istanbul, remains closed for decades despite international pressure, you might take a look at the writings of the 5th century theologian St. Augustine.
Continue reading "Turkish Libido Versus Halki Seminary"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 12:43 AM | Comments (3)
December 6, 2008
Oh My God, Is the CHP Questioning Kemalism?
[Originally published in Hürriyet Daily News]
Deniz Baykal, the leader of the main opposition People’s Republican Party, or CHP, has been surprising us for a while. For years, he had slashed his sword for all the ultra-secularist causes you can imagine, including the ban on the Islamic headscarf in the "public square." But just a month ago, he made a surprising move by blessing the acceptance ceremony of a group of veiled women in his party. And, alas, these ladies were the most orthodox of all: they wore the all-black, all-covering chador. "We can’t push these people to the AKP’s ranks," he mind-bogglingly said. "They, too, deserve a place under the CHP roof."
Continue reading "Oh My God, Is the CHP Questioning Kemalism?"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:30 AM | Comments (3)
November 16, 2008
Why Atatürk Became a God
[Originally published in Hürriyet Daily News]
In recent years, the more moderate and reasonable Kemalists are asking themselves a curious question: How in the world has Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Turkey’s founder, who devoted himself to fighting "dogmatism" become a dogma himself? How has such a bold champion of "science and reason" turned into the symbol of a rigid, irrational, insensible ideology that impedes the country’s progress, including its candidacy for the European Union?
Continue reading "Why Atatürk Became a God"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 8:00 PM | Comments (2)
October 19, 2008
Can Shariah Be Better Than Secular Law?
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Have you been reading the series titled "Letters from the old civilization," which the Turkish Daily News has been running in its opinion pages since last Monday? If not, I would recommend them. The writer, Markus Urek, is a member of the Assyrian community of Turkey, which is one of the oldest Christian denominations in the world. He is currently a Fulbright Scholar at the New School of New York, but he has apparently traveled to the Middle East recently to write those stories from Syria and Iraq.
Continue reading "Can Shariah Be Better Than Secular Law?"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 12:50 PM | Comments (1)
July 24, 2008
Why The CIA Funds Me and Other Nonsense
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
If there is one thing that the Kemalists never lack, that is imagination. They can make up, and then believe in, all sorts of fantasy. Their pundits have recently created a vast range of conspiracy theories from the lunacy that “Islamist” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is in fact a crypto Jew who serves the Elders of Zion to the more popular nonsense that the U.S. government aims at establishing a “moderate Islamic republic” in Turkey.
Continue reading "Why The CIA Funds Me and Other Nonsense"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:45 AM | Comments (5)
July 20, 2008
Is Turkey A 'Mistaken Republic?'
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
You should meet Sevan Nişanyan. A Turkish citizen of Armenian decent, he studied philosophy at Yale, political science at Columbia, and now teaches Turkish language and history at Istanbul’s Bilgi University. In the past he has written several books about tourism in Turkey that were all well received by everyone who read them, but his recent title made him a public enemy in the eyes of Turkey's staunch Kemalists. Mr. Nişanyan, with all his boldness, argues that Kemalism is, in essence, what we commonly know as fascism.
Continue reading "Is Turkey A 'Mistaken Republic?'"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 4:44 PM | Comments (8)
June 26, 2008
The Atatürk Silhouette on The Holy Mountain
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
The people of Damal, a district of the eastern city of Ardahan, couldn't have imagined that their modest and destitute town would attract droves of visitors and become the focus of the Turkish media. But that is exactly what happened in the past few years with the "Atatürk miracle" discovered on the face of the Karadağ heights. Apparently, the silhouette of Turkey's revered founder appears on the shadow that falls on these heights between June 15 and July 5. And thousands of Atatürk lovers, including military officers, bureaucrats and urban professionals, visit the region in order to observe this fascinating solstice.
Continue reading "The Atatürk Silhouette on The Holy Mountain"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:20 AM | Comments (7)
June 19, 2008
Does The Secular Mind Beat The Religious One?
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Thanks to the new liberal daily Taraf, we now know that a bureaucratic Turkish cabal called the âRepublican Working Committeeâ has been working on yet another âsoft coupâ project for quite some time. It seems to have started in 2003, when 15 die-hard secular university rectors held a secret meeting with Gen. Åener Eruygur, the commander of the Gendarmerie. They all agreed to fasten the internal struggle against the âbackwardees.â (That term, âmürteciâ in Turkish, refers to conservative and observant Muslims, such as the women in headscarf.) The group emphasized the need to convert the âyoung backwardeesâ when they are at primary school age, and to crack down on their parents within state structure. Taraf writes that these ultra-secular rectors even swore to be martyrs for this unholy war to save the holy Republic from religion.
Continue reading "Does The Secular Mind Beat The Religious One?"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 4:11 PM | Comments (2)
June 8, 2008
Introducing the Kemalist Revolutionary Tribunal
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Yesterday I received an email from a Turkish high school student named Sümeyye. She, who seemed to be around 16 years old, was sad and bitter. She wrote:
“With the decision of the Constitutional Court, I feel like a dead person. Next year, I am scheduled to enter the university exams, which I had been so excited about. My biggest dream was to go to university, and I had already started to work hard for it. But now I feel so desperate. I am now forced to make a choice between my belief and my dreams. And I am full of anger at those people who forced me to do so. I used to speak about tolerance and understanding, and quote Rumi and Yunus Emre, but I really don’t feel that way anymore. There is simply no justice or democracy in this country.”
Continue reading "Introducing the Kemalist Revolutionary Tribunal"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 2:00 PM | Comments (16)
May 17, 2008
Why Most 'Educated' Turks are Hopelessly Illiberal?
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
One of the great benefits of Turkey’s EU adventure is that it unveils some crucial yet often unnoticed facts about this country. Thanks to the accession process, Europeans are taking a closer look at Turkish society, and realizing who is really who in this very complex and often confusing nation. One particular discovery of Europeans has been that the secularist Turkish elite is not sharing some of their fundamental values, such as democracy and individual freedom. These European-looking Turks are also quite militarist and nationalist according to Western standards.
Continue reading "Why Most 'Educated' Turks are Hopelessly Illiberal?"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:18 AM | Comments (5)
May 10, 2008
The Kemalist Crusade Against 'Imperialism' (aka the EU)
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
If someone had handed out a questionnaire these days among Turkey’s Kemalists asking them, “Who do you hate the most,” I bet two names would top the list: Olli Rehn and Joost Lagendijk. These gentlemen are the most-known faces of the European Union in Turkey and they are among the most vocal supporters of Turkish democracy. And, in the eyes of the guardians and apparatchiks of our semi-autocratic regime, democracy is a “counter-revolution” that should be avoided at all costs.
Continue reading "The Kemalist Crusade Against 'Imperialism' (aka the EU)"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 1:09 PM | Comments (6)
May 8, 2008
Who Threatens Turkey's Jews?
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Ishak Alaton is one of the most prominent names in Turkey’s tiny Jewish community. He, as the boss of the well-established Alarko Holding, is not just a very successful businessman, but also a man of intellect who comments on social and political problems. As a self-defined social democrat, Mr. Alaton believes in social responsibility – not as a public relations strategy, but as a value in itself.
Continue reading "Who Threatens Turkey's Jews?"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:25 AM | Comments (2)
April 26, 2008
The Trouble With The Theophobes
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
One of the interesting and tell-tale controversies of the past week was the fuss over the recent remarks of Hakan Şükür, Turkey’s famous football star and a pious Muslim. In an interview with daily Zaman, he warned the supporters of his team, Galatasaray, and the other big one, Fenerbahçe, about the impending match between the two. In Turkey, football matches, especially such key derbies, often turn into orgies of violence. But that is very much against the morals of Islam, Şükür noted. And, he added, it would be especially bad to swear and attack fellow human beings during the “week of the holy birth,” that of Prophet Muhammad, in which this match will be played. He reportedly said:
Continue reading "The Trouble With The Theophobes"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:23 AM | Comments (18)
April 24, 2008
The Republic and Its Islamic Enemies
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
WASHINGTON - Every country has its own towering figures of intellect, and as a nation torn between several conflicting political philosophies, Turkey has quite many of them. There are prominent liberals, conservatives, socialist, or nationalists. Even the official ideology, i.e., Kemalism, has distinguished supporters, and quite a few of those figures would be as erudite and sophisticated as the eminent law professor, the 79-year-old Mümtaz Soysal.
Continue reading "The Republic and Its Islamic Enemies"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 7:48 PM | Comments (0)
April 20, 2008
The American Plot to Overthrow The Turkish Republic
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Did you know that the U.S. government is a part of a big conspiracy to destroy Turkey's secular regime and, instead, establish a “moderate Islamic republic”? I have been totally unaware of that heinous plan, and I suspect that even the top officials of the US government itself have been as clueless as I am. But there are extremely smart people in the world, from whose eyes no trick escapes. They discover the hidden truths behind all stones, and they detect all the covert conspiracies that most mortals fail to see.
Continue reading "The American Plot to Overthrow The Turkish Republic"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 12:31 PM | Comments (7)
April 17, 2008
The Biggest Threat to Turkey is 'Independence'
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
First, congratulations to the head of the EU Commission, Mr. Jose Manuel Barroso and EU's Commissioner for enlargement, Mr. Olli Rehn, for the excellent job they have done by giving bold support for Turkish democracy. The vision that they presented in their recent trip to Ankara and Istanbul is the best hope that this country can really have: Continuing with EU reforms, strengthening democracy, and accepting democratic secularism, as opposed to the unabashedly authoritarian one that we have.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 12:57 PM | Comments (2)
April 10, 2008
Who Is an Islamist? Who Is a Muslim? And What About Me?
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Political terms can be misleading, especially when used to serve ambitious agendas. For Senator Joseph McCarthy, for example, even a slight of touch of social democracy was “communism” in sheep's clothing. During his heyday in the U.S., it was very easy to de-legitimize a political actor by simply labeling him as “red.”
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:07 AM | Comments (9)
April 3, 2008
And The Show Trial Begins...
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Maximilien Robespierre was the architect of the Great Terror of the French Revolution, and the behind-the-scenes killer of Georges Danton, who was sentenced to death by a revolutionary tribunal in the year 1794. While accusing Danton with all the bizarre crimes, Robespierre had frankly put the logic behind such show trials. "When the Republic is at stake,” he proudly noted, “we can do anything."
Continue reading "And The Show Trial Begins..."
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:31 AM | Comments (2)
March 26, 2008
Secular Jihad—A Judicial Attack on Turkish Democracy
[Originally published in Wall Street Journal]
Who would you expect to be zealous enemies of "moderate Islam"? Islamic fundamentalists? You bet. From Osama bin Laden & Co. to less violent but equally fanatic groups, Islamist militants abhor their co-religionists who reject tyranny and violence in the name of God. But they are not alone. In this part of the world, there is another group that holds a totally opposite worldview but shares a similar hatred of moderate Islam: Turkey's secular fundamentalists.
Continue reading "Secular Jihad—A Judicial Attack on Turkish Democracy"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:48 PM | Comments (7)
March 22, 2008
The ‘Crimes’ of Tayyip Erdoğan
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
The latest assault on the elected representatives of the Turkish people, as you might have noted, has come in the form of a judiciary coup d'état attempt. Turkey's chief prosecutor filed a case against the incumbent Justice and Development Party (AKP). He wants to close the party down, and ban 71 of its top members, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, from politics.
Continue reading "The ‘Crimes’ of Tayyip Erdoğan"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 1:30 PM | Comments (0)
March 20, 2008
Introducing the Soviet Socialist Republic of Ankara
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Turkey is often called a democracy, but that is a gross mistake. In fact, it is only a quasi-democracy. In democracies, sovereignty rests with the people. In Turkey it is shared between the people and the Soviet Socialist Republic of Ankara (SSRA). The latter lets the people make decisions on trivial issues, but never allows them to mingle with more important ones. When the representatives of the people take steps to make Turkey a real democracy, the SSRA first resists, then warns, then attacks.
Continue reading "Introducing the Soviet Socialist Republic of Ankara"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:58 PM | Comments (8)
March 16, 2008
The Attempt For a Judiciary Coup D'état
[To be published in Turkish Daily News]
I have been telling you that these people are crazy. And now they proved it beyond any doubt.
You must have heard what I am speaking about. Turkey’s chief prosecutor has just filed a case against the incumbent AKP (Justice and Development Party). He asks for the closure of the party and the banning of Prime Minister Erdoğan and his 70 top colleagues from politics. A political party which has just gained the votes of the 47 percent of the Turkish people is now under threat. Even President Abdullah Gül is on the list of the would-be banned politicians. Unbelievable but true!
Continue reading "The Attempt For a Judiciary Coup D'état"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 4:55 PM | Comments (8)
March 13, 2008
The Heinous Attack on The Penis of Atatürk's Horse
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
You really shouldn’t miss this. Last week, the head of the CHP (People’s Republican Party) in the city of Denizli, Mr. Ali Kavak, unveiled yet another heinous attack on our secular Republic and its founder. He, with all seriousness, posed in front of cameras with a photo of the statue of M. Kemal Atatürk that rests at the center of his city. “As you see,” he said, “the penis of the horse that Atatürk sits on has been broken.” Then he moved on to disclose the wicked plan behind this blasphemy: “We think that the AKP (Justice and Development Party) cadres have broken the penis,” he asserted, “the mindset which covers our women’s heads with scarves is now attacking artworks!”
Continue reading "The Heinous Attack on The Penis of Atatürk's Horse"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:47 AM | Comments (7)
February 23, 2008
The Greatest Turkish Story Ever Sold
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
A very informative piece appeared on these pages last week under the title “Decision to abolish headscarf ban hurts Turkey internationally.” Its writer, Dutch commentator Michael van der Galiën, nicely summarized how Europeans like him see this country. “We often think that the majority of Turks are overly religious,” he wrote, “but that they are kept in check by a modern elite.” He added that his fellow Europeans worry that “this elite cannot control these masses much longer,” and fear that “Islamists will take over and the European Union will have a massive problem.”
Continue reading "The Greatest Turkish Story Ever Sold"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:15 AM | Comments (4)
February 7, 2008
A Politically Incorrect Q&A on The Headscarf
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
You must have noticed that allowing university students to wear headscarves on campus is a very controversial topic in Turkey. The proponents of the ban argue that it will be beginning of the end of the secular state. Some portray it as the victory of “dogma” over “reason.” I, instead, think that it is a step toward a more liberal and democratic Turkey. To explain why, I decided to present a little Q&A. Here we go...
Continue reading "A Politically Incorrect Q&A on The Headscarf"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:13 AM | Comments (2)
February 2, 2008
Nutty Professor Asks For Atheist Tyranny
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
I have long used the term “secular fundamentalism” to define the self-styled laïcité of the Turkish Republic. This authoritarian system imposes secularity, a worldview and lifestyle devoid of religion upon its citizens by using state powers. It is the mirror image of religious fundamentalism, which, conversely, imposes religion. In both models, the state has a self-declared ideology, and it tries to shape its citizens according to this dogma. It wants to recreate them in its own image.
In Turkey most secular fundamentalists would shy away from putting this so bluntly. But there are some brave figures who don't mince words.
Continue reading "Nutty Professor Asks For Atheist Tyranny"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:03 AM | Comments (5)
January 31, 2008
It Is About Freedom, Not Scarves
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Why in the world does a state care how students dress in its universities? Shouldn't the state respect its citizens' choices and mind its own business?
If you tend to agree with the tone in these rhetorical questions, then you are probably a believer in liberal democracy. But, of course, that is not the only political system in the modern world. There are also autocratic regimesthatimpose their official ideology on their citizens' lives, including dress code. Islamist autocracies such as Saudi Arabia and Iran are the most known current examples.
Continue reading "It Is About Freedom, Not Scarves"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:21 AM | Comments (5)
January 24, 2008
The Empire Strikes Back (Via Juristocracy)
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
The bureaucratic oligarchy in Turkey experienced a massive defeat last summer, July 22, when the party that they despise was opted for by 47 percent of the Turkish voters. It was one of the milestones in Turkish democracy, by which people's power won over that of the authoritarian state. After that defeat, the Turkish military took a lesson and stopped making implicit threats about launching coup d'etats. And, at least for a few months, the non-military wing of the oligarchy — including its political arm, the CHP (People's Republican Party) — calmed down.
Continue reading "The Empire Strikes Back (Via Juristocracy)"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:18 AM | Comments (3)
January 19, 2008
The Trouble With Self-Hating Turks
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Yesterday's Turkish Daily News had an interesting interview with Marcus Graf, a German cultural scientist and curator. Speaking to our reporter Yasemin Sim Esmen, Graf noted a peculiar problem in the Turkish art community. “They have a problem with their identity,” he said about Turkish artists. “If they use the symbols and forms of Anatolia, they are called ‘orientalists,' ‘kitsch,' or even ‘fascists'.” The culture expert added that Turkish artists hesitate using “Islamic symbols, such as calligraphy,” because they fear being labeled as “religious.”
Continue reading "The Trouble With Self-Hating Turks"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:44 AM | Comments (2)
December 29, 2007
Reflections On The Devolution In France
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Chou En-Lai, the late prime minister of communist China, was once asked what he thought about the French Revolution. He declined to comment, and explained, “It's too early to tell.”
That was in the early 1960s. Perhaps today it is a little bit less early to comment on whether the French Revolution really was a good idea. That seminal event – which inspired not just the French but also many other revolutionaries in many countries all around the world, including Turkey – has borne some notable fruits by which we might judge their political roots.
Continue reading "Reflections On The Devolution In France"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:39 AM | Comments (9)
December 27, 2007
Kemalist Science and Its Perpetual Motion Machine
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Cautionary note: The country, events and characters in this piece are all real. I am not kidding at all.
Is it possible to build a machine that will work forever without having any energy input? Many mechanics were fascinated by that idea during the Middle Ages, well into the 19th century. But at last, thanks to the discovery of the laws of thermodynamics, the zeal for such a "perpetual motion machine" died out. The scientific community decided that it was impossible to build such a marvelous device — at least in the universe we live in.
But wait a minute... Perhaps the scientists got it wrong. Maybe they did not employ the correct principles that would allow for the creation of a perpetual motion machine. They, particularly, did not take into account the most important guiding light that the Turkish nation has ever seen.
Continue reading "Kemalist Science and Its Perpetual Motion Machine"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:03 AM | Comments (9)
December 13, 2007
Eastern Kemalists, Too, Do Not Understand Turkey
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
In last weekend's edition of the Turkish Daily News, fellow columnist Orhan Kemal Cengiz had a brilliant piece titled “Western Kemalists do not understand Turkey.” His main point was that “Western Kemalists,” who are “huge fans of Atatürk and the ‘revolution' he and his friends brought about in our country” fail to get Turkey right. They, for example, unquestioningly buy into the creation myth of Republican Turkey — that the pre-Republican (i.e., Ottoman) period was an age of “darkness.” By showing several examples, Mr. Cengiz argued otherwise. “After 80 years of the establishment of the Republic,” he wrote, “it is really difficult to say that, in terms of mentality, we are more advanced than the Ottomans.”
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:13 AM | Comments (3)
December 6, 2007
Dawkins' 'Delusion' Should Be Free
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Richard Dawkins is probably the world's most famous atheist evangelist. In his numerous books, the Oxford zoologist argues that modern science, and in particular the Darwinian theory of evolution, has disproved God. He is a gifted writer, and his recent volume, The God Delusion, has become a global bestseller. Some call him “the Harry Potter of non-fiction.”
More recently Dr. Dawkins made the news in Turkey, too, yet not by his arguments. As the Turkish Daily News reported on Nov. 29, following a complaint by a Turkish reader that some passages in the The God Delusion were an assault on "sacred values," an Istanbul prosecutor has opened an official investigation on the book's Turkish version. Its publisher, Erol Karaaslan, is said be “questioned” soon.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:05 AM | Comments (6)
December 2, 2007
Secular Apartheid at Work
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
"Injustice anywhere," said Martin Luther King, "is a threat to justice everywhere." Therefore the world should learn and care about the story of Tevhide Kütük, the 17-year-old Turkish schoolgirl who just became the latest victim of Turkey's self-styled apartheid.
It all started several months ago in Kozan, a municipality in the southern city of Adana. The young and bright Tevhide, a student of the state-sponsored quasi-religious "Imam-Hatip" schools, heard about the essay contest that the Education Ministry launched to celebrate the annual Teacher's Day. She wrote a fine piece on the virtues of teaching, and submitted it to the organizing committee. Soon the jury decided that she was the best writer among all the other students in her hometown, and thus she deserved to win the award, which was a very modest present by all standards, but a very inspiring reward for a modest teenager.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:17 PM | Comments (10)
November 24, 2007
Turkey's Veiled Democracy [A Must-Read Article]
This article, published in the November/December issue of The American Interest magazine, is available here online (but in full only for subcribers), and here in full as a PDF file.
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 7:16 PM | Comments (2)
November 17, 2007
The Scandal of The Kemalist Mind
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
I, unluckily, made a lot of people upset with my piece in last weekend's edition of the Turkish Daily News, The gospel according to Atatürk. A few dozen readers sent fuming emails, which rebuked me for daring to criticize the level of veneration shown in Turkey to its founder.
If you have been reading the Letters to The Editor section, you might have come across two of these reactions, which came from two Turkish readers living in the United States. The one from New Jersey noted that he was shocked by my piece, and added, "someone should tell Akyol that he is dead wrong." The other one, a lady, expressed anguish at me and my "very naive look." I, she also argued, "cannot be a Turk."
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 12:33 PM | Comments (5)
October 8, 2007
The Islamic Case for a Secular State -III-
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
In June 1998, a very significant meeting took place at a hotel near Abant, which is a beautiful lake in the east of Istanbul. The participants included some of the most respected theologians and Islamic intellectuals in Turkey. For three days, the group of nearly 50 scholars discussed the concept of a secular state and its compatibility with Islam. At the end, they all agreed to sign a common declaration that drew some important conclusions
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:14 AM | Comments (6)
September 20, 2007
Why Are We a Nation Obsessed with the Headscarf?
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
To most outside observers the scene must be looking pretty bizarre: Thousands of otherwise reasonable men and women in this country, who make up much of the social elite, are having panic attacks in the face of the possibility that Turkish universities might tolerate their students wearing the Islamic headscarf. Virtually everyday, bureaucrats, pundits and even university rectors lash out against the proposed article in the proposed constitution to set the headscarf free. "This will be the end of the secular republic," they passionately claim, without realizing that a secular republic that doesn't respect the rights and liberties of its citizens is called a secular tyranny.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:02 AM | Comments (4)
September 13, 2007
The Opium of the Atheists
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
KRYNICA-ZDROJ — This little Polish town not only has a name hard to pronounce, but it is also quite difficult to reach. In order to arrive at this nice spa resort, you need to first fly to Warsaw, then take another plane to Krakow, and then drive for more than 200 kilometers. Yet this long and winding – and nowadays heavily raining – road apparently does not prevent thousands of people to meet here every September for what they call “the Davos of Central-Eastern Europe:” The Krynica Economic Forum, which brings together top-level politicians including heads of state, and businessmen from Central Europe, the former Soviet Union and many other places.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:57 AM | Comments (4)
September 2, 2007
The Koran and Non-Muslims—Facts Versus Myths
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Many years ago, I came across a book, which claimed to explain “Israeli terrorism” in the light of the Hebrew Scriptures. It was full of photos showing Israeli soldiers attacking and harassing Palestinians, and presented huge captions that included verses from the Old Testament, and especially the Book of Joshua. If the Israelis were breaking the bones of a Palestinian youngster — a globally notorious scene from the ‘80s — then the caption would include a verse with something like “Thou shall break their bones.” The book's argument was blunt and simple: The Israelis were torturing a nation because that was what their religion ordered them to do.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:31 AM | Comments (15)
August 26, 2007
A Critique of a Fellow Columnist
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
We columnists are actually not too different from readers like you. We read the papers everyday, especially the ones we write for, and we find pieces that we like or don't like. One of my favorite columnists in this paper is Mr. Burak Bekdil. He has a readable style, a smart and witty prose, and he catches good topics. It is no secret that we strongly disagree on many issues relating to Turkey, especially on the role religion in public life, and that's why we had opposing pieces in the recent months. And although I continue to appreciate the quality of his columns, I think Mr. Bekdil has become growingly unreasonable since the general elections. The AKP won them, and Mr. Bekdil, who fears that the end is near for the good old secular republic, has gone extreme.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:17 PM | Comments (5)
August 9, 2007
Why Turkey Is the Homeland of Modern Islamophobia -II-
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Abdullah Cevdet (1869-1932), a late Ottoman intellectual whose views impressed many of his contemporaries, was an avowed secularist. “There are two types of people,” he once declared, “the wise, i.e., the irreligious, and the fool, i.e., the religious.” Anybody who believes in a deity that masters the universe, according to Cevdet, was “in total delusion.” He was convinced that the only way forward for humanity, and his fellow Ottomans, was to abandon religion, and, instead, cling on to “science and reason.” He was so outspoken against his intellectual war on the Almighty that some religious figures of the time argued that he did not deserve the name “Abdullah,” which means “the servant of God.” They rather called him "Aduvullah" — the enemy of God.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 2:56 PM | Comments (2)
August 6, 2007
Why Turkey Is the Homeland of Modern Islamophobia -I-
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
A friend of mine from Chicago — a middle aged American woman and a successful entrepreneur who made some investments in Istanbul — once told me about a strange “Turkish experience” she had. She invited all the Turks she knew in town to a party at her house. As it happened, one of the guests was wearing a headscarf. When others saw this observant lady, they felt horrified, and silently asked my friend, “Why did you invite this woman?” She first couldn't understand the question. “I initially thought she was a known criminal or something,” my friend explained to me, “then I realized that the problem was the obsession of other Turks about her dress.” And she asked me where that idée fixe came from.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:39 PM | Comments (1)
July 26, 2007
Turkey’s Illiberal Seculars
[Originally published in The Wall Street Journal, also available in Albanian]
Sunday’s general elections in Turkey were seen by some commentators as the vote that would shape the upcoming decades of this overwhelmingly Muslim and yet resolutely secular republic. While it was widely expected that the incumbent Justice and Development Party, also known by its Turkish initials as AKP, would come out as the strongest party, very few predicted the extent of its victory. The AKP gained 46.6% of the votes and 340 seats in a parliament of 550--an astounding electoral triumph that has many implications for Turkey and even the broader Islamic world.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 2:03 AM | Comments (2)
July 21, 2007
The Sum of All Secular Fears—A Sequel
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Recently the TDN ran a piece of mine titled "The Sum of All Secular Fears." Last Wednesday my "column neighbor" Burak Bekdil responded with "The Sum of All Secular Fears—A Reply.” And now here is my reply to the reply.
First, I should thank Mr. Bekdil for his kind and generous remarks about my piece. I can unreservedly express the same appreciation for his column, including this recent "reply," which was definitely smart and witty. Yet I have to add several refinements and even an outright correction.
Continue reading "The Sum of All Secular Fears—A Sequel"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:44 AM | Comments (2)
July 13, 2007
The Sum of All Secular Fears
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Do you now what the biggest nightmare of a secularist Turk is?
It takes place mostly when he takes a vacation to visit some place in Europe or North America. He packs up, wears his stylish jeans and t-shirt, puts on his iPod, takes his elegant girlfriend and boards a plane. During the flight, he chats with one of the European or American passengers on board. At some point this indigenous Westerner learns that this chic couple is from Turkey and he confusedly asks, “Hey, don't you guys wear fez or turbans in your country, is this your national dress?”
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 8:53 AM | Comments (12)
June 30, 2007
Atilla Yayla and the Emperor’s Latest Clothes
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Next Monday, on July 2, a Turkish professor will be on trial in İzmir. The prosecutor will ask the judges that he should be put in prison for three years for the crime he committed in the same city about six months ago. The alleged felony is not something like theft, robbery or fraud, though. It is about “insulting Atatürk,” Turkey's revered founder, and the accused is Dr. Atilla Yayla, who teaches political science at Ankara's Gazi University and who is also the founder of the Association for Liberal Thinking.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:57 AM | Comments (23)
June 16, 2007
Sex Matters -II- [The Tragedy of Kemalist Feminism]
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Last weekend I was sitting at one the busiest Starbucks Coffee shops in Istanbul and reading the recent report by the European Stability Initiative (ESI) titled, “Sex And Power In Turkey: Feminism, Islam and The Maturing of Turkish Democracy.” Suddenly someone said “Hi!” to me, and I realized that she was the perfect person to do so while reading a study on Turkish feminism. As a young, elegant and articulate Turkish woman, she runs a successful business and lives a perfectly Western life. But at the same time she believes that the U.S. and the EU are cooking up a conspiracy against Turkey, and the country is heading fast toward “shariah rule” because of those evil powers and their internal ally, the incumbent AKP. She is one of those types who would rather see tanks in the streets than a first lady with a headscarf.
Continue reading "Sex Matters -II- [The Tragedy of Kemalist Feminism]"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 12:10 PM | Comments (25)
June 14, 2007
Sex Matters -I- [Toward a Post-Patriarchal Turkey]
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Do you recall the recent debate in Turkey about “Islamic capitalism?” Well, that was sparked by a 2005 report prepared by the Berlin-based think tank, European Stability Initiative (ESI), and which had the witty title, “Islamic Calvinists: Change and conservatism in Central Anatolia.” According to ESI, Turkey's conservative Muslim entrepreneurs were developing a “business ethic,” bit similar to that of the early Calvinists, who had spearheaded the flourishing of capitalism in Europe, as the analyses of sociologist Max Weber would later show.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 12:14 PM | Comments (1)
June 9, 2007
Uncivil Society Under a Jealous God
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
A few weeks ago, I gave a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations entitled “Turkey's Political Battle: Secularism vs. Democracy.” While I hope that the event, organized and presided by CFR's articulate Turkey expert, Steven Cook, helped the audience, I am pretty sure that it helped me. Once more I had an opportunity to see how Westerners perceive Turkey. From all the answers, reactions and comments that I received, and not just at the CFR meeting but also on many other occasions, I have come to notice that there is an important barrier for the uninitiated foreigner to understand Turkey's politics. Over here some political concepts have very different meanings.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 12:02 PM | Comments (3)
June 5, 2007
A Day of Infamy (June 5, 1925)
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Today is the anniversary of a tragedy in Turkish political history. Eighty-two years ago, on this day, Turkish democracy was crushed and an authoritarian regime was introduced. And the legacy of that moment has continued to doom our political system to date.
If this is totally news for you, don't worry. It is so for many Turks, too. For they have been raised on the creation myth of Republican Turkey, which can be summarized as something like this:
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:36 AM | Comments (15)
May 25, 2007
Mr. Loğoğlu Is Wrong, Considerably Wrong, About Turkey
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Yesterday's Turkish Daily News had a piece by Mr. Faruk Loğoğlu, former Turkish Ambassador to Washington, titled “The apologists are wrong, dead wrong about Turkey.” The “apologists” included Suat Kınıklıoğlu (of the German Marshall Fund), Fareed Zakaria (of Newsweek), The Economist magazine, and me. And what we “the apologists” have been doing, according to Mr. Loğoğlu, was defending “moderate/liberal Islam” and the “conservative Muslim democrats” of Turkey against its secularist establishment.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 2:16 PM | Comments (2)
May 16, 2007
Islam Will Modernize—If Secular Fundamentalists Allow
[Originally published in The Washington Times and Turkish Daily News]
In the past two decades, the violence perpetrated by the proponents of Islamism—an ideology distinct from Islam as a religion—has created serious doubts about the potential of Islam to live in harmony with others. The doubts are well justified, but it would be wrong to extrapolate the current “crisis of Islamdom” to a general negative view about Islam as a religion. One should recall that Islamdom was probably the most advanced and enlightened part of the world a thousand years ago. Perhaps, we are just living in a bad episode in its extremely diverse history.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:30 AM | Comments (22)
May 4, 2007
The Threat Is Secular Fundamentalism
[Originally published in International Herald Tribune]
It is no secret that Islamic fundamentalism is a threat to democracy, freedom and security in today's world, especially in the Middle East. Yet the same values can be threatened by secular fundamentalists, too. Turkey's self-styled laïcité, a much more radical version of the French secular system, is a case in point.
The American model of secularism guarantees individual religious liberty. The Turkish model, however, guarantees the state's right to dominate religion and suppress religious practice in any way it deems necessary.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 5:30 PM | Comments (3)
April 19, 2007
The Poverty of Marxism-Sezerism
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Communism is an ideology with different shades and tones. Throughout the 20th century, we have seen its moderate versions such as the one in Tito's Yugoslavia, and its horrible versions such as the one in the Khmer Rouge's Cambodia.
Yet still, communist regimes have some basic common characteristics. First, they are against economic freedom; they want to limit private property and free trade as much as they can. Since Marx argued for the collectivization of the “means of production” (produktionsmittel) in order to avoid “exploitation” by the bourgeoisie, all Marxists have aimed to take them under the control of the state.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 5:22 PM | Comments (4)
April 16, 2007
Render Unto Atatürk
[Originally published in First Things]
When thousands of furious Muslims rallied in the streets of the West Bank, Pakistan, and Indonesia to protest Benedict XVI’s Regensburg address, many commentators spoke with pessimistic alarm about the “clash of civilizations” that had now become increasingly manifest. The reason for this peril, it was claimed, was religion of any kind. Thus, Sam Harris-a dreamer who hopes to achieve the wishful title of his book, The End of Faith, by atheist proselytizing-declared that the pontiff was “merely giving voice to his religious inanities,” which could “start a war with 1.4 billion Muslims who take their own inanities in deadly earnest.”
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:25 PM | Comments (3)
April 13, 2007
Why Erdoğan Is Right on Hitler
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
In his TDN column, “Erdoğan's Turkey, Hitler's Germany,” my colleague Burak Bekdil argues that Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan revealed his “genetic/ideological incompatibility with secularism” when he said, “Hitler's Germany, too, was secular.” With all due respect, I totally disagree with Mr. Bekdil. I rather think that Mr. Erdoğan made a completely valid and important point by noting that secularism alone is not a redeemer for nations.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:04 PM | Comments (2)
April 12, 2007
The Political Economy of Turkish Ultra-Secularism
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
It is no secret that many of the political wars in Turkey are related to the age-old conflict between the secularists and conservatives. The current heated debate over the possible — and very likely — presidency of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan is just one of the many symptoms of this permanent clash between these two camps. (As well known, the secularists simply don't find Mr. Erdoğan secular enough to be Turkey's next president. Mr. Erdoğan's supporters, on the other, find the secularists not democratic enough to accept a president who is not one their kin.)
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:24 AM | Comments (1)
February 7, 2007
Why President Sezer is Wrong About Secularism
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Turkey's President Ahmet Necdet Sezer has just made another of his customary warnings about the principle of secularism and the “threats” it is supposedly facing. Calls for “redefining secularism” are absurd and dangerous, Mr. Sezer claimed, because Turkey simply has a perfect application of that principle.
Ah, he is so wrong.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:12 AM | Comments (4)
December 18, 2006
"Islamic capitalism" faces Kemalist resistance
[Orginally published in Turkish Daily News]
One of my primary school memories is of "domestic goods week." Our teachers used to order us to bring all kinds of authentic Turkish products, such as nuts, raisins and figs, to our classrooms and eat them collectively to celebrate the homegrown wonders of our motherland. "Don't ever buy foreign products," our teachers also said. "If you do so, foreigners will be exploiting us and our nation will become their slave."
That was in the early '80s, at a time when Turkey was run by a military dictatorship and still believed in the import-subsidization policies of the past two decades, which had been compatible with the economic wisdom of the times. Then came the Turgut Özal years (1983-93) during which Turkey opened its borders to foreign goods and capital and started to build a real market economy. Along with his good friends Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister (and later President) Özal was a revolutionary leader who argued that free markets are the only path to economic prosperity. His motto was "the three freedoms" — of ideas, worship and entrepreneurship.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 1:11 PM | Comments (1)
December 7, 2006
The Pope on Turkey, Secularism and Islam
[Orginally published in Turkish Daily News]
Much has been said about the visit by Pope Benedict XVI to Turkey. Yet the most important comment of all would, of course, come from His Holiness himself. And it did. After going back home, he, "as is now the custom after each apostolic visit," reviewed his trip in an address given at Rome on Dec. 6.
Overall the address was a concise review of what he has done in the four-day trip. However, the pontiff used delicate language that included some important messages about Turkey, secularism and Islam as well.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 5:56 PM | Comments (0)
November 22, 2006
No Real Threat to Turkish Secularism
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV), the country's leading think-tank, has announced its recent survey titled "Religion, Society and Politics In The Changing Turkey." Carried out by two political scientists from the Bosphorus University, Drs. Binnaz Toprak and Ali Çarkoglu, and based on interviews with 1492 individuals from all around Turkey, the study presents factual insights on one of Turkey's hotly debated issues.
Today many secularists in Turkey fear that religion is becoming a more and more dominant sociopolitical force, especially under the incumbent Justice and Progress (AK) Party. TESEV study suggests that this fear is not very realistic. Results show that religion is indeed flourishing in the Turkish society, but it is also undergoing a process of modernization and liberalization.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 12:31 PM | Comments (1)
October 2, 2005
Turkey and the Headscarf
[Originally published in The Washington Times]
There are few countries in the world in which policemen ensure that women dress appropriately. Saudi Arabia is one example. Its notorious "religion police," called mutawwa, force women to cover their heads and bodies. In Turkey, the story is reversed: The Turkish police require the removal of headdresses.
To be fair, Turkey's dress code is much less severe than Saudi Arabia's. In Turkey, the ban is enforced only in defined parts of the public square: government buildings, courtrooms, university campuses and all schools.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 1:08 PM | Comments (18)
