An Islamic Society With a Secular State

NYT ^ | December 16, 2001 | SOMINI SENGUPTA

[a_Turk]

fakat ya tutarsa!

Tutar! Tutar!

[Alouette]

Great article! Turks rock!

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Some ten years back we had a Turkish exchange student as a guest for a few months. My daughter, being in Europe for study last year, decided to visit Turkey and looked Salim up. He apparently was glad to entertain her--he sent his chauffeur around with the Mercedes to pick her up. My daughter was impressed stunned.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Islam, which has waxed and waned as a political force over the years, has recently been in decline; the Islamist parties did poorly in the 1999 election. Still, earlier this year, the state shut down the main Islamist party. Perhaps, Turkey has nothing to fear anymore, said Hakan Yilmaz, the political scientist. But old anxieties are hard to stifle.

At its founding, the U.S. had multiple denominations of Christianity which were sufficiently strong to make the First Amendment a necessity for uniting the country. What caused Turkey to become the sole example of a majority-Moslem country which is a country before it is a Moslem society? Doesn't seem that an individual--however charismatic--would be able to institute that, and make it stick.

[a_Turk]

Doesn't seem that an individual--however charismatic--would be able to institute that, and make it stick.

The Man saved our keasters from being voided. From then on we'd follow Him no matter what, no questions asked. We were then, and we are still, indebted to Him. He is no less than a saviour to us. He passed away in 1938. The whole country still observes a minute of silence every November 10 at 9:05am - the exact anniversary of His death. Traffic stops, folks get out of their cars and stand at attention as sirens wail.

[FITZ]

Doesn't seem that an individual--however charismatic--would be able to institute that, and make it stick.

I was kind of wondering the same thing. I've listened to Persians talk about their previous religion Zoroasterism which they had to give up when the Arabs invaded and dominated them, and I wonder if the Turks have enough of those religious beliefs left over to make them so much more tolerant.

[denydenydeny]

Nice.

[Frances_Marion]

Kemal Attaturk was a skilled leader, and a world hero for demolishing the vile caliphate. I don't want to imagine what Turkey would be like were there no Attaturk, and I doubt most Turks do either. I read about him in a book called "Great Military Campaigns"...he was impressive. The only country with a majority moslem population that I've been to is Malaysia....which I think is slowly coming around to a secular state, though its got a long way to go....I enjoyed my visit there, however, very friendly people.

[zandtar]

I didn't hear much Pink Floyd when I was over there last year. Quite a bit of good Euro-techno in the dance clubs. And, I picked up the CD of a singer named Tarkan. The Simarik (sp?) song was pretty popular, and I liked it.

[Colosis]

Very interesting article - it is good to learn about your country.

[12B]

Makes me want to go get a döner kebap.

[Captain Shady]

The government's Religious Affairs Division hires all the imams (occasionally, some of them are taken to court if their behavior contravenes government regulations), issues permits for mosques (occasionally, they are discovered to have been erected illegally) and runs the seminaries.

Interesting . Does Turkey have groups that disapprove of this practice ?Most American church groups would scream if our government had such a practice.

[a_Turk]

Most American church groups would scream if our government had such a practice.

Let some illustrious pastor move his flock like Usame did and we'll see this potential US government practice spring up. And woe to the church groups which would then scream. ;^)

Unlikely, of course, that you could get that many morons together in the US to make it constitute a danger. It's all in the swayability of your masses. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.