TURKEY: SECULAR OR ISLAMIC, THAT IS THE QUESTION

Will Turkey choose Islamic identity over secular law?

Turkey, touting itself as the only Muslim-majority secular democracy in the world, now faces a test to see how committed it is to practicing democracy.

In late October, the European Union required Turkey to modify its decidedly un-democratic Article 301 or seriously jeopardize its relationship with the EU. Turkish Article 301 states that insulting Turkishness is punishable by six months to three years in prison. Just this year, 99 persons have been charged with violating Article 301. Most recently, two Turkish men were charged with violating 301 after police raided their church office.

Both men, formerly Muslims, had been active responding to inquirers in greater Istanbul. The police released them after taking their computers and interrogating them over two days. In speaking with the prosecutor, one of the men said, “I am a Christian, and I am a Turk. I will keep on sharing my faith. We are not ashamed to be Christians, and we are not hiding anything.” Their case goes before the courts Thursday.

What exactly was their crime? What were the crimes of the other 97 people arrested under Article 301? What exactly is “insulting Turkishness”?

It appears from the charges brought against the two Turkish evangelists that, contrary to public statements of Turkey’s secularity, Turkishness is in fact bound up with Muslimness, and anything that questions the nature of Islam also questions Turkishness.

To the Western mindset, this is rather hard to understand. Is Germanness synonymous with Lutheranness or Catholicness? Is Frenchness equal to Laiche? Is Americanness the same as Christianness? That might come as a surprise to my Jewish friends in New York or my Buddhist friends in Los Angeles. Nationality, ethnicity and religion cannot be so easily melded into one. Unless you are in Turkey.

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Pertinent Links:

1) Will Turkey choose Islamic identity over secular law?