May 1, 2007
The Turkish paradox and the prophets of Eurabia
What is the answer to the rise of fundamentalism across the Muslim world? For years Europeans and Americans thought they knew the antidote: secular democracy.
In the Islamic world, Turkey has been the shining example. Not only is the country a member of Nato; it has also been held up as proof that a country can be simultaneously Muslim, prosperous, secular and democratic. So what are we to make of events in Turkey now? Secularists have demonstrated in huge numbers because they are terrified by the prospect of the indirect election of a mildly Islamist president, and the army has hinted that it may stage a coup to protect the secular character of the state. Secularism and democracy seem to be at war.
The paradoxes do not stop there. American neo-conservatives hoped that the invasion of Iraq would create a new bulwark of pro-western democracy in the Islamic world. But while the US has failed in this aim, it has managed to inflict grave damage on its strategic relationship with its most important partner in the Muslim world: Turkey.
The remainder of Gideon’s weekly column can be read here (FT.com subscription required).
You hit the nail on the head when you wrote that the way to radically alter the demography of western Europe would be to admit Turkey. Your figure for the number of Turks (70 million) is of course the present population of Turkey. By the time of its accession, its population will be closer to 100 million, at least according to an article in the FT some 18 months ago. This against a background of huge declines in Europe’s population. Germany in 20 years is expected to have a population of 60 million, Russia under 100 million, and 50% of Hungary’s children are expected to be Gypsies.
I know of no example in the 1,400 year history of Islam when Islam has cohabited on terms of EQUALITY with any other religion; and in all countries with large Islamic minorities, there are always separatist movements, the Philippines, Thailand, China, India, Yugoslavia,
Africa.
Western societies face unprecedented problems with peak oil, global warming, aging populations. Why should we bring more Moslems into our societies?
Best regards and thanks for your stimulating articles.
Posted by: Fergus P Rooney | May 2nd, 2007 at 2:00 am | Report this commentMr. Rachman, Readers,
I had not realised that my letter would be published, but had thought it would simply be addressed to Mr. Rachman, with whom I had once before corresponded on the question of Turkey’s accession to the EU.
I would therefore like to apologise unreservedly to readers for any offence that may be taken from what I wrote, in particular from my reference to Moslems.
I have lived three years in a Middle Eastern country; and travel frequently and work in a major Moslem South East Asian country, a country whose people are kind and sincere, and devout in their faith.
I am however as a European (resident in Asia) deeply concerned at the consequences of unlimited immigration into our countries of people who appear either unwilling or impossible to assimilate; and the apparent total unwillingness or inability of individual countries or the EU to stop or halt such immigration.
Posted by: Fergus P Rooney | May 2nd, 2007 at 5:26 am | Report this commentOh thats very funny Fergus. But I think its good to be honest to resolve our differences?? If we are always politically correct then we won’t really know what our concerns are and what we need to work on.
Posted by: John | May 2nd, 2007 at 10:26 am | Report this commentWould it be impolite to observe that Bernard Lewis is Jewish and, for that matter, so is Melanie Philips who banged the same racist, divisive drum in her book “Londonistan”?
If a Muslim author writes in the same terms about Jews that the above two refer to the Muslims, there will be feinged outrage and the tiresome comparisons to Hitler will be bandied about noisily so why are Neo-Cons (overwhelmingly supremacist Jews) allowed to get away with this?
Posted by: Minerva | May 2nd, 2007 at 1:02 pm | Report this commentDear “Minerva” (whoever you are)
I don’t know whether it is impolite to point out that Bernard Lewis is Jewish - but I don’t think it is important to the argument. It might have struck you that I am also Jewish (my name might be a clue?). But I don’t agree with Bernard Lewis’s views on Muslims in Europe. In fact, the point I was making about Muslims applies equally to Jews - you should look at the arguments that people make and the points of view they represent, rather than making sweeping generalisations about millions of people.
Posted by: Gideon Rachman | May 2nd, 2007 at 6:05 pm | Report this commentDear Mr. Rachman, you are so far the most apt commentator I have seen reporting on what is happening in Turkey these days. I have not yet seen a commentator who grasps the complexity and, as you have it, paradoxical nature of Turkey. Islam in Turkey is very moderate, but I have seen several commentators (who should know history a lot better before starting to comment) call the AK party a radical Islamic party suggesting almost that Turkey is on the eve of an Algerian conflict between radical Islam and secularism. Such utter humbug. The Kemalists don’t want a headscarf nor, for that matter, a Fez in Ataturk’s palace. That would be a heresy against the Turkish nation. Islam was the political tool of the Ottomans; if it’s one’s personal religion fine, but the new Turkey freed from imperial illusions and colonial masters was supposed to be nobody’s fool. Still, the Ottoman empire of old had bare breasted women in the bathhouses and belly dancing girls. If Islam were to strongly resurface in Turkey then it is unlikely such classic treats will be reinstated; despite our wishes for a flourishing liberal democracy in Turkey the trend is one that is towards a much more conservative Saudi-type interpretation of Islam in a fashion that is alien to Anatolia and inspired by events in the Arab world. That type of Islam also is something the secularists would rather not import. Nor should they.
Posted by: Felix Drost | May 3rd, 2007 at 1:34 am | Report this commentThe suppression of the moderate Islamists by the Turkish military will likely result in radicalisation of the Islamist tendency in Turkey. This happened in Algeria too.
imho, the unelected generals’ intervention in the democratic process is, by far, the larger threat to the development of democracy in Turkey compared to the wielding of power by muslim version of the continental Christian Democrats.
A visit to any Istanbul mosque at prayer times confirms that they Turkish society contains a large element of devout muslims (and Istanbul is pretty westernised, compared to most of Turkey). Most of those who don’t actively practise the religion are believers, nevertheless.
At the same time, hardly anybody wants to turn Turkey into Saudi Arabia and they all look forward to the fruits of modernity.
If Turkey’s fragile democracy is to evolve into something stronger, it needs to have its roots in the Turkish society as it is, including its Islamic beliefs, rather than in some make-believeversion of France that was dreamt by Ataturk over 80 years ago and never came about.
Finally, it is ironic that in the context of neighbouring Iran, the Americans refer to the intervention of constitutionally appointed supreme leader (who is appointed by an elected body), as being undemocratic whereas they support the bullying Turkish generals.
Posted by: Pacifist | May 3rd, 2007 at 10:23 am | Report this commentmr. rachman:
i was not “making sweeping generalisations about millions of people” as you suggest but merely pointing out that there are a disproportionate number of people of the Jewish faith (or their fellow travellers, the christian zionists) who fan the flames of islamophobia while, at the same time, accuse anybody who criticises israel or the jews as anti-semitic.
Minerva
Posted by: Minerva | May 3rd, 2007 at 11:37 am | Report this comment