More secular than thou

More secular than thou - Turkish Daily News Oct 08, 2007

Move over, democracy. Now secularism is the concept everyone wants a piece of. At least in Turkey, where it has been one of Atatürk's six principles of the Republic since its founding, but is taking on new meaning and controversy with the predominance in electoral politics of the faith-friendly Justice and Development (AK) Party.

In Turkey the test of those who press for stretching secularism to support religious freedom will be whether they include other religious groups than their own—and those of no religious affiliation—in their concern and sympathy.

We cannot expect that Turkey's grappling with these issues will replicate in any sense what Western countries have already made of them. Yet Turkey's path in reaching its own accommodation of secularism and religious espression, both in Atatürk's time—and before-- and more recently, has already been influenced in part by Western models—and now we can hope to learn from each other, as voyagers in the same buoyant and choppy sea.

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