Re: Turkey, Islam and EU

Posted by Bulent Gokay on December 10, 2002 at 15:43:11:

In Reply to: Turkey; religious freedom and respect vs politics and human rights in the EU posted by Hans Hansen on November 10, 2002 at 06:24:51:

Turkey in Europe or Europe in Turkey?
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On 3 November 2002, Turkey's voters turned in vast numbers to the AK (Justice and Development) Party, a new political entity with firm Islamic roots but whose greenest leaves are pro-Western, consistently in favour of human rights and democracy, and above all, uncorrupted by Turkey's unpopular political elite. The party was formed only 18 months ago by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, once mayor of Istanbul, who campaigned on a platform of liberal Islam, human rights and democracy, and social justice for all. The forerunners of liberal Islam present attitudes similar to liberal currents in other cultures and demonstrate their tendency to benefit from democratic reforms and a society based on social justice. AK Party's programme is composed of detailed sections paying special attention to keeping religion separate from politics, promoting democracy and multi-party politics, providing religious and cultural tolerance, preserving women's rights, freedom of thought and expression, internalizing human rights and enhancing political participation. What constitutes today's AK Party is the evolution of a number of different factors that combined in a specific historical context and these factors, among others, are the multi-dimensional socio-cultural structure of present day Turkish society, interpretation of Islamic teachings and daily practices of religious faith. In addition, a number of recent developments contributed to this trend: the rise of secular education, the increasing use of international communication and travel opportunities, and the failure of dogmatic interpretations of Islam.

Liberal Islam in general represents a modern tendency in the Islamic world that considers Islam, mostly, as a personal matter and not as a dominating force in public life. Islamic civilization is considered no different than others and shares the common characteristic of not being monolithic in political and cultural terms. Although there is a clear preference to establish an Islamic leviathan in different Muslim majority states, liberal Islamist interpretation denies that this idea is supported by the Quran and the Sunnah. Those elements representing Liberal Islam argues that only a small part of Islamic teaching deals with state affairs while overwhelming majority of the ethical codes directly address people's experience of religion and personal conduct of faith. This position also reflects the acceptance of the availability of different readings and interpretations of Islamic teaching.

The rise of AK Party to administration has been a major event, a clear evidence to the high momentum of the liberal Islam in Turkey. The party opposes the idea of Islamist party and brings a combination of traditional as well as liberal-democratic values and ideals to fore. The party's leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, declared that their first priority is to accomplish the EU membership process and to rebuild Turkish political system based on societal demands and appropriating international norms and principles. The party also sets the stage for Turkey to solve the crisis with Greece over divided Cyprus, and serve as a model for other Muslim countries in balancing mosque and state, and offer up clean and fair government for the multi-cultural and multi-ethnic peoples of Turkey. The performance of the new government and its future role in Turkish politics is obviously very critical for both state-society relations in Islamic world and civilizational relations between Islam and the West.

Like other modern societies, Muslim societies' political experiences in their own contexts create a demand for a pluralist and democratic state, and the fact that most of the Muslim people live under authoritarian regimes in most of the Muslim majority states prevents the discussions of the compatibility of democracy with Islam, while making the demand for democracy more vital. In this search for democracy, the catchwords are not "Islamist party" or "Islamic state" but those of "diversity", "understanding", and "freedom." Turkey's liberal Islamists do not consider religion in the public sphere as illegitimate, but do not subscribe to the idea of an Islamic state since it fails to draw required lessons from the past. They believe in a separation of powers and checks and balances that will restrict any monopolizing authoritarian rulers, whether in religious or any other contexts. In this way, they will also protect the religious faith from falling into manipulative hands of the demagogues.

There are mixed signals in the U.S. and Europe on AK Party's rise to power due to its Islamic outlook, but it would not be wrong to argue that the responses are positive in general. Erdogan is now in his second trip in Europe to persuade the leading politicians for Turkey's getting a date for EU membership negotiation. He brings the ideas like dialogue of civilizations to discussion table and tries to persuade the European leaders about the importance of Turkey's membership. He underlines that Turkish membership will really serve for the improvement of the EU's image in the Islamic world and will create an additional incentive for integration with the West. The widespread and staunch anti-Western feelings and attitudes have been a distinguishing feature of a good number of the Islamists for a long time. The frequent difficult times between Islam and the West have provided the background and strong evidences for this imaginary barrier and even resulted in an ideé fixe that it is not probable to reconcile Islamic and Western values. Erdogan consistently points out all this can be changed and indeed offers a unique opportunity in this problematic debate.

It is safe to argue that it is now the EU's turn and its constructive engagement will contribute not only to the ending of decades long historical prejudices but also for Turkey' political and economic reconstruction. The Turkish state establishment has traditionally resisted efforts to widen its legitimacy base to include these discourses of the new identities based on ethnic, ideological, and cultural diversity. Geographically, Turkey provides a bridge, in a literal sense, between Europe and Islamic Middle East, and historically the country has been the grand bazaar where European and Asian civilisations confront each other. Turkey is a culturally diverse land, and this diversity should be seen as a source of strength rather than a challenge to existing institutions. There are many economic, social and cultural factors which have strong potential in favour of peaceful and consistent development. Turkey is a modern and relatively wealthy country with many institutions and traditions necessary to sustain a modern liberal state and society. Although Turkey's recent political history has been repeatedly interrupted by military interventions, there has also been nearly half a century of multi-party democracy. Turkey has one of the most sophisticated newspaper and publishing industries in the world, and its own communications satellite. There is relatively little inter-communal violence between ordinary people of Turkish and Kurdish origin. Nobody in public life question the desirability of harmony between citizens of Turkish and Kurdish ethnicity. None of the political parties are promoting, explicitly or implicitly, racial or religious hatred.

It was surprising to many Europeans when they saw orthodox ecumenical patriarch Mutafyan and Erdogan hand-in-hand lobbying for Turkey's EU membership in Paris. The EU's giving a date for membership negotiation to Turkey will support all those liberal and democratic attempts to reconcile the discourses of the new ethnic and cultural identities with the state's official modernization program and mobilize the dynamism of the society for consistent economic development and a peaceful political reconstruction of the country. What better example could there be than a party with moderate Islamic roots that just swept to power in free and fair elections, which is consistently in favour of democratic reform and closer relations with Europe? With its new and dynamic government, Turkey is now standing with an overwhelming decisiveness for the EU membership and harmonizes the traditional Islamic culture and democratic values. This will be no less than a litmus test if the European governments waste this chance to support Turkey, which is on its own unique way to establish a Muslim democracy.

During the years when Europe was divided, the concept of universal democracy and human rights could be kept alive by people of the widest cultural and historical horizons. Especially during the forty years of the Cold War, it took the greatest intellectual courage and strength to resist not only persistent nationalism but also the narrow-minded view of a Europe based exclusively on the prosperous West. Fortunately, a few individuals of the necessary quality existed. They have left their legacy in writing. One such person was Hugh Seton-Watson, who lived between 1916 and 1984, Professor of Russian History at London University, described common European culture as
"European culture is not an instrument of capitalism or socialism; it is not a monopoly of the EC bureaucrats or anyone else. To owe allegiance to it, is not to claim superiority over other cultures. ... The unity of European culture is simply the end-product of 3000 years of labour by our diverse ancestors. ... it is our task to preserve and renew it."

Now, in the new political climate which emerged after the recent elections, there is a good chance to move strongly and consistently in this direction of peace and harmony, and to combine disparate but not necessarily antagonistic elements in a context of democratic reform, understanding and tolerance. In any case, AK Party's election victory can be seen as a gift to all Europeans that religion need not be an obstacle in advancing democracy, human rights and economic reform, and better relations between states, cultures and civilizations.

10 December 2002

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