Is Secularism Declining in Turkey?

"Turkey is a religious society in its great majority, and it can be claimed that religiosity has become much more visible during the recent years.

In Turkey, we face a devoutly religious society, but one with a religiosity that is tolerant of other beliefs, and which is compatible with pluralism, modernity and more importantly one that has internalized secularism. Professors Binnaz Toprak and Ali Carkoglu, two leading political scientists at Bogazici University, conducted a survey for the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Association (TESEV) in 2002, and found that 86 percent of Turkish people qualify themselves as “religious”. 31 percent of claim to be “highly or very religious”, while 55 percent considered themselves “fairly religious”. Ninety-one percent fast during the Ramadan, and 46 percent say they pray five times a day. The proportion of respondents who said that those who do not perform their prayers regularly, those women who do not cover their heads can still be considered proper Muslims, and that there are good people even among those who belong to religions other than Islam ranged between 85 to 90 percent. Over half of the respondents (53 percent) said that there might be good people even among those who do not believe in God. Proportion of respondents who said they would like to see Islamic rules applied to marriage, divorce and inheritance did not exceed 10 to 15 percent. Secular regime in Turkey is not guaranteed by state institutions or civilian and military bureaucracy, but mainly by people’s support for it."
ZAMAN DAILY NEWSPAPER (2005102625776)