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IS TURKEY STILL A SECULAR MUSLIM MODEL?
by Dr. Laina Farhat-Holzman
Family Security Matters
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.9808/pub_detail.asp
June 24 2011
Until now, Turkey has modeled how an Islamic state can modernize and
democratize. When the Ottoman Empire crumbled after World War I, the
Turks retreated to what they considered their original homeland in
Anatolia, once the homeland of the Byzantine Christian Roman Empire
until the Ottomans conquered it in 1453. Constantinople was renamed
Istanbul.
Under cover of World War I, the Turkish military carried out the
century's first ethnic cleansing, a deliberate massacre of the
Christian Armenian population that had lived there for millennia,
well before the Turks arrived.
This nasty history aside, modern Turkey was midwifed by a respected
Turkish general, Kemal Ataturk, who devoted his life to transforming
the abysmal remnant of Ottoman rule into a modern, European-oriented
state. In his republic, women discarded the veil and men the fez (a
brimless hat that allowed men to touch their foreheads to the ground in
Muslim prayer). He changed the alphabet from the Arabic to the Latin,
which greatly increased literacy and was another blow at Islam.
Without Arabic, Turks could no longer understand the Koran. Ataturk
admitted that if he could free Turks from Islam altogether, he would,
Islam was an impediment to modernizing and westernizing.
In neighboring Iran, Reza Shah Pahlavi had a similar problem in
trying to modernize an even more backward country. He also unveiled
women and outlawed the fez. But he had more difficulty in breaking
the stifling hold of Shiite Islam on Iran. He tried public education,
a civil service, and modern banking and jurisprudence to wrench these
institutions from the grip of the clerics. The country did start
modernizing, even more rapidly under Reza Shah's son, until the 1979
"Islamic Revolution" unseated the Pahlavis. Today Iran has become a
monstrous mixture of the worst of Islam and the most fraudulent of
democracies. Iran's next government, after an inevitable revolution,
will not be Islamist.
For most of a century, Ataturk's efforts proved more successful
than those of Reza Shah. Turkey's resolutely secular military,
a much-respected institution, intervened periodically when Turkish
democracy spun out of control-or when Islam threatened a resurgence.
But demographics on the ground, little noticed, were threatening
secular Turkey by stealth, through democratic elections. The poor,
pious, and ignorant Turks living in the underdeveloped eastern part
of Turkey have been pouring into the large cities, including Ankara
and Istanbul, where their votes have brought to power an Islamist
government under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In the June
12 election, Erdogan came close to getting the majority he would
need to be able to change the constitution without challenge from
secular parties.
Erdogan has intimidated the military with threats of state trials
for "treason" so that there is no longer a military to protect the
secular state. In addition, the free press is under attack. Turkey has
more than 2,000 journalists under prosecution and 4,000 others under
investigation. The government is blocking thousands of websites it
considers "insulting," which means either insulting to the government,
or insulting to Islam, and has jailed offenders.
Even The Economist (May 14, 2011) had to acknowledge that Turkey's
"mildly Islamic" government is hypocritical regarding its so-called
"reforms" to protect women. Human Rights Watch notes that 42% of women
over 15 have suffered physical or sexual violence, vulnerable even
when pregnant. Turkey and Russia are now rated the worst in Europe for
women-battery and murder rates. Erdogan wants women to have babies,
not divorce, and stay at home (Economist June 11). Turkey's feminists
are outraged. Turkey is now 126 among 134 countries in the 2010 Global
Gender Gap Index.
Fifty percent of the electorate voted for secular opposition parties,
but Erdogan's party won a plurality, giving him a third term as
President. He didn't win enough votes to revise the constitution
without input from the secularist parties. For the moment, an Erdogan
dictatorship is not in the cards. But with Erdogan in charge, Turkey
is no longer one of the good guys, with serious consequences for
Turks-and the rest of the Middle East.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Dr. Laina Farhat-Holzman
is an historian, lecturer, and author who also writes for the
Santa Cruz Sentinel. You may contact her at [email protected] or
http://www.globalthink.net/. Her latest book is: "HOW DO YOU KNOW
THAT? A Guide to Critical Thinking about Global Issues," which will
be reviewed on FSM soon.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
by Dr. Laina Farhat-Holzman
Family Security Matters
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.9808/pub_detail.asp
June 24 2011
Until now, Turkey has modeled how an Islamic state can modernize and
democratize. When the Ottoman Empire crumbled after World War I, the
Turks retreated to what they considered their original homeland in
Anatolia, once the homeland of the Byzantine Christian Roman Empire
until the Ottomans conquered it in 1453. Constantinople was renamed
Istanbul.
Under cover of World War I, the Turkish military carried out the
century's first ethnic cleansing, a deliberate massacre of the
Christian Armenian population that had lived there for millennia,
well before the Turks arrived.
This nasty history aside, modern Turkey was midwifed by a respected
Turkish general, Kemal Ataturk, who devoted his life to transforming
the abysmal remnant of Ottoman rule into a modern, European-oriented
state. In his republic, women discarded the veil and men the fez (a
brimless hat that allowed men to touch their foreheads to the ground in
Muslim prayer). He changed the alphabet from the Arabic to the Latin,
which greatly increased literacy and was another blow at Islam.
Without Arabic, Turks could no longer understand the Koran. Ataturk
admitted that if he could free Turks from Islam altogether, he would,
Islam was an impediment to modernizing and westernizing.
In neighboring Iran, Reza Shah Pahlavi had a similar problem in
trying to modernize an even more backward country. He also unveiled
women and outlawed the fez. But he had more difficulty in breaking
the stifling hold of Shiite Islam on Iran. He tried public education,
a civil service, and modern banking and jurisprudence to wrench these
institutions from the grip of the clerics. The country did start
modernizing, even more rapidly under Reza Shah's son, until the 1979
"Islamic Revolution" unseated the Pahlavis. Today Iran has become a
monstrous mixture of the worst of Islam and the most fraudulent of
democracies. Iran's next government, after an inevitable revolution,
will not be Islamist.
For most of a century, Ataturk's efforts proved more successful
than those of Reza Shah. Turkey's resolutely secular military,
a much-respected institution, intervened periodically when Turkish
democracy spun out of control-or when Islam threatened a resurgence.
But demographics on the ground, little noticed, were threatening
secular Turkey by stealth, through democratic elections. The poor,
pious, and ignorant Turks living in the underdeveloped eastern part
of Turkey have been pouring into the large cities, including Ankara
and Istanbul, where their votes have brought to power an Islamist
government under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In the June
12 election, Erdogan came close to getting the majority he would
need to be able to change the constitution without challenge from
secular parties.
Erdogan has intimidated the military with threats of state trials
for "treason" so that there is no longer a military to protect the
secular state. In addition, the free press is under attack. Turkey has
more than 2,000 journalists under prosecution and 4,000 others under
investigation. The government is blocking thousands of websites it
considers "insulting," which means either insulting to the government,
or insulting to Islam, and has jailed offenders.
Even The Economist (May 14, 2011) had to acknowledge that Turkey's
"mildly Islamic" government is hypocritical regarding its so-called
"reforms" to protect women. Human Rights Watch notes that 42% of women
over 15 have suffered physical or sexual violence, vulnerable even
when pregnant. Turkey and Russia are now rated the worst in Europe for
women-battery and murder rates. Erdogan wants women to have babies,
not divorce, and stay at home (Economist June 11). Turkey's feminists
are outraged. Turkey is now 126 among 134 countries in the 2010 Global
Gender Gap Index.
Fifty percent of the electorate voted for secular opposition parties,
but Erdogan's party won a plurality, giving him a third term as
President. He didn't win enough votes to revise the constitution
without input from the secularist parties. For the moment, an Erdogan
dictatorship is not in the cards. But with Erdogan in charge, Turkey
is no longer one of the good guys, with serious consequences for
Turks-and the rest of the Middle East.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Dr. Laina Farhat-Holzman
is an historian, lecturer, and author who also writes for the
Santa Cruz Sentinel. You may contact her at [email protected] or
http://www.globalthink.net/. Her latest book is: "HOW DO YOU KNOW
THAT? A Guide to Critical Thinking about Global Issues," which will
be reviewed on FSM soon.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress