The Coming Clash in Turkey

Turkish columnist Ahmet Altan has a fantastic article up in the current English language issue of the Spiegel. While its conclusion is a bit alarmist, the social divide is very real. He begins:

Currently in Turkey, there is, on the one hand, a great mass of people who leave their shoes at the door before entering the house; whose women cover their heads; whose men go out in the street in pajamas; whose teenage boys frequent coffeehouses while girls live under a completely repressive rule; people whose homes are lit with cheap florescent bulbs; who enjoy a type of music somewhere between folk and arabesque; who have perhaps never read a book, never danced, never been to a restaurant as husband and wife, never gone to the theater; who have little education and profess strong religious beliefs.

On the other hand, there are those who went to high school at Robert College, with its girls’ lyceum; who have danced at college parties or weddings, who go to movies, who read books, though not a lot; who are relatively well-educated; whose taste in music ranges from pop to classical; whose homes are decorated relatively tastefully; whose women don’t cover their heads; who may not permit their teenage girls to date but look the other way when they do; who believe in God but pay little attention to prayers; who drink alcohol in mixed company though they may not know much about wines; who follow newspapers, watch talk shows, feel they are more progressive than the first group and live largely Western lives.

The life-styles of these two groups are disconnected. Unlike in the West, where a sensibility shared by all classes is created out of such elements as church music, religious iconography and stories from the Bible adapted even for the screen, there is no cultural ground uniting the competing groups in Turkey. Their lives, their tastes, and their beliefs are separate. Even antagonistic.

Indeed, while In Istanbul not long ago, I witnessed the massive protests of the secularists, or radical secularists as I call them against the nomination of foreign minister Abdullah Gül, for president. Politics have become increasingly polarized over time and Gül for president seems to be what finally brought this out in the open, but nationally and internationally.

Pro-secular protests in Istanbul, April 2007

While discussing Turkish issues under the Galata bridge with Carpetblogger, we both agreed that whereas some in the West and in fact many in Turkey see radical Islam as a threat to Turkish democracy, it was indeed radical secularists who posed the biggest threat. Unlike the West which they so wish to mimic, Turkish “democrats” go much further than separation of church and state and in fact seek to ban all religious influence in politics. Even mentioning God or quoting religious sources brings instant outrage and calls for resignation. In Europe and the United States, most seek to limit religious influence and promote tolerance. Imagine if a congressmen were arrested for talking about Christian values during a session.

More and more, as the secular democrats in Turkey realize that the religious masses are politically mobilized and now able to win almost every election, the “democrats” are resorting to exactly the intolerance they hope to avoid. While Turkish democrats become increasingly hardline and undemocratic, the religious masses who have grown up with democracy and learned to work within it are realizing that the so-called democrats quickly discard the values they claim to believe in. With democracy already under fire in many parts of the world, the only Muslim democracy discrediting itself will bode very badly for the region.