Understanding Religious Expression in Turkey

"Despite the recent violence against Christians, I think Turkey as a nation, and Christian Turks in particular, are in a better place today than in many other moments of their past. Things, as a whole, have gotten better for non-Muslims in Turkey over the last 20 years and there are positive omens for continued development in this direction."

"The Islamist-friendly AKP party says they are tolerant of non-Muslims, but in fact, they have made it next to impossible for Christians to flourish in Turkey. The shrinking Orthodox community, for example, complains the government has closed down their seminary, refuses them legal status, and interferes in their internal affairs (like the election of their Patriarch). Even more importantly, Christians of all denominations complain the government has done little to squelch the anti-Christian sentiment promoted in public schools, the media, and in mosques (many of which have been built by government funds). The secularists, on the other hand, while lambasting the AKP party for Islamic extremism, are equally intolerant and extreme, I would say, in relation to religious liberty. They reject any public expression of religion. Out of fear of an imposition of Sharia Law, they fight against the use of the veil in public, prayer in school, and even expressions of personal piety of members of the military or other public institutions."

"Religion is not a cultural extra. It is an expression of human nature, and when it is subjected or denigrated by the government or restricted by any one religious sect, all of us lose. In this globalized world, what happens in Turkey matters to us all."
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